


Neville Longbottom and the Second Wizard War

by Canadiantardis



Series: The Second Wizarding War [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Battle of Hogwarts, Beating, Blood, Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Dumbledore's Army, Fluff, Gen, Happy Ending, Harry Potter Next Generation, Hogwarts Seventh Year, Kidnapping, Multi, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Potterwatch, Pre-Battle of Hogwarts, Sorry Not Sorry, Violence, mostly - Freeform, not sure if graphic violence but might be, sad feels, takes place same time as deathly hallows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-14
Updated: 2015-06-11
Packaged: 2018-03-01 09:26:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 33
Words: 33,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2768084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canadiantardis/pseuds/Canadiantardis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What exactly happened at Hogwarts when Harry wasn't around, when the Carrows were professors, during the Second Wizarding War?</p><p>//Its as canonical as possible with minor tweaks. Deathly Hallows following Neville's point-of-view.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. During the Summer

Neville walked with his grandmother through the streets of Diagon Alley quickly, both sensing something was off, dark, and that if they weren’t careful something bad could happen.

“You sure we need all this?” He asked as he tried to catch up to his grandmother, who was anything but old and frail, despite how she looked.

“Yes, and we just need some parchment paper before we can go. Now hurry, boy.” She called over her shoulder, heading to Scribbulus Writing Instruments.

The two bought everything and headed back to the Leaky Cauldron to take the Floo express home and were back home after being gone for about two hours.

Not even an hour later they heard about the attack on Diagon Alley and the kidnapping of Olivander.

* * *

 

“Well, I’m happy for your brother.” Neville said to the fireplace where Ginny’s face was seen.

“Why? He’s marrying Phlegm!” Ginny replied, laughing as she spoke. Neville chuckled with her. He had heard of this nickname for Bill’s fiancée last year at the beginning of the school year.

“Well, he’s getting married. People should be happy when others are getting married, especially with everything going on.” Neville said, becoming a bit more somber, and wiping the laughter from Ginny’s face completely.

“Hmm, true. I am happy for them. I just hope everything goes well.”

“Why would things not go well?” Neville asked.

“Well, things have been too quiet, you know? And I think Harry and the others are planning something, but I don’t know what.” Ginny said with a bit of a pout.

“Well, it’s Harry, of course he’s planning something, but I don’t think anything will happen during the wedding.” Neville heard his Grandmother call to him. “Anyway, I have to go, send me an owl about the wedding and everything, okay?”

Ginny nodded and the fire returned to normal. Neville went to see what his grandmother wanted.

* * *

 

_Hello Neville, hope this owl finds you well._

Neville smiled at the letter in his hand. Luna finally sent him an owl after the summer had almost completely finished. He thought she had the prettiest handwriting, an almost dreamlike scrawl.

_I’m sorry I haven’t been able to send you anything, and I’m even more sorry I didn’t send you anything on your birthday. Hopefully this message will be a good make up._

_I haven’t heard from Ginny since the wedding attack, and I am slightly worried. Hopefully you heard from her._

_Also, I’m going to be giving you your gift from me when we see each other on the train, okay?_

_Father has been listening to the radio rather closely lately, and his articles are becoming very interesting. I’ve sent you my copy of the most recent. I am really proud of Father for his bravery on this stand, even after what happened at the Ministry._

Neville looked at the magazine by his side, looking at the headlines on the Quibbler. “Daily Prophet no longer reliable. Death Eaters now own almost all forms of knowledge.” He was rather surprised Luna’s dad would bravely put that as a headline, as well as a slightly smaller headline of “Quibbler fully supports Harry Potter.” He worried that if the Death Eaters truly had almost complete control, Luna and her father would be targeted just for what the Quibbler publishes.

He went back to the letter.

_I hope you are well, and look forward to seeing you in September._

_Luna_

And on the bottom, a small, almost absentmindedly made heart. Neville’s smile came back full force. He needed to see Luna and his other friends soon, and he hoped school would be fun this year.

Chapter Done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: This is kinda just a set up to know what will happen. Obviously, I'll be focusing on the Silver Three, as well as Dumbledore's Army.  
> If any of the characters start acting OOC, tell me because I want them to be as close to canon as possible.  
> Hope you enjoy reading this!


	2. New Professors

“There are so few kids this year, haven’t you noticed?” Luna asked her friends sitting in the train carriage with her.

“Yeah, I noticed that too, Luna. I don’t like this.” Ginny frowned; her mood had been dark ever since the Death Eaters had attacked her brother’s wedding. “What do you think happened?”

“Not sure.” Neville put in, looking out the carriage briefly before closing the door. “But it has to be because of the Ministry falling. If it fell, then the Death Eaters are in charge of everything. Haven’t you noticed?”

“I really don’t like this.” Ginny jittered her leg as she sat, looking through the window. “Who knows what’s going to happen at school now that the Ministry is hell!”

“It will be fine, Ginny.” Luna smiled at her friend reassuringly. “Professor Dumbledore always said Hogwarts is the safest place for us.”

“But what about all these kids who aren’t _able_ to come to Hogwarts, just because of their blood?” Ginny stopped bouncing her leg to look at her friends. “They might not even _know_ they are in danger, because they would never think about their magic powers or anything because they live in the muggle world.”

“We’ll just have to hope they will be okay. Maybe if they don’t know about who they are, the Death Eaters won’t even go after them.” Neville shrugged, unsure how to sooth his friend’s mood. “But I’m worried about the ones who are in our years that are missing. I saw Seamus in another carriage with a few other Gryffindors, but didn’t see Dean.”

“Dean’s not on the train?” Ginny straightened a bit. Even though she broke up with him in April, she did care about him as a friend.

“Well, I dunno if he isn’t on the train, but he isn’t with Seamus.” Neville also worried about his friend. He knew Dean didn't know if he was muggleborn or half-blood, so he might be in hiding because of that fact, but hoped he was wrong.

“You guys, if we start to worry so much before we even get to Hogwarts, it will only get worse.” Luna looked between her two friends with a look of distant concern, though they both knew she was deeply concerned for them both, even if she didn’t look it.

Neville sat next to Luna and sighed. “Yeah, you’re right, Luna. We should think of other things.”

Ginny was silent for a bit before nodding, bouncing her leg again. “I wish Harry was here.”

“Yes, I agree.” Luna sighed. “I hope those three are going to be okay. Do you know what they are going to do, Ginny?”

The red head shook her head, conflicted between annoyance and concern. “I didn’t even know they had a plan until a few days before the wedding. I wanted to help but Ron said I couldn’t.”

“Well-” Neville started before the train was stopped suddenly.

The last time the train stopped was because dementors were looking for Sirius Black, so the three were confused why the train had stopped, before they heard a message come to all the carriages.

“An emergency search is in place currently. We will be moving again in a few minutes.”

The three glanced at each other warily. Why would there be a search?

Ginny was the first to realize what it might imply. “They must be looking for Harry. Do they honestly think he would be daft enough to go to school while You-Know-Who is back?”

They didn’t have to wait very long before a Death Eater opened the carriage, looking around.

“He’s not here.” Neville growled at the Death Eater. The Death Eater looked at him for a second before leaving without saying a word.

“Neville?” Luna looked at Neville with a tilt of her head. “Why’d you say that to him?”

“I really just didn’t want him near us for longer than a second, to be honest.” Neville relaxed when the train started to move again.

* * *

 

Neville waved to Luna when they had to sit at their own respective House tables, sitting next to Ginny and Seamus, who found them when the train stopped at the station.

“Hey, Seamus.” Ginny greeted, but was surprised to see the Irish teen sullenly greet back. “Where’s Dean?”

Seamus’ frowned. “Haven’t heard from for weeks. Last owl he sent was beginning of August. Talking about how he wouldn’t be able to talk much.”

“Really? You don’t think it’s because…” Neville lowered his voice. “Because of what happened at the Ministry do you?”

“What do you mean, what happened to the Ministry?” Seamus looked confused.

Neville realized a bit late that not many people who did not know about what happened at the Weasley’s wedding or about the true nature of what happened to the Minister of Magic would not know the truth.

“Uh…” Neville stumbled over things he could try to cover up what he said but was cut off when the group of first years came through the doors to the Great Hall.

Neville was sad to see how few first years were walking to the front of the Great Hall, towards the tables with the teachers. Normally there would be about hundred or so kids, but now there were about seventy kids walking forward.

He looked towards the teachers’ table, looking forward to see some of his favourite teachers, like Professor Sprout and McGonagall, but was surprised to see his Head of House sitting with a sour look on her face, and two dark looking people standing where she normally stood to read the list of students for the Sorting Hat.

Ginny gasped and tugged Neville’s sleeve hard. “Aren’t… Aren’t those the Carrows?” She breathlessly asked.

Neville almost fell over when he realized that she was right. He remembered seeing their Wanted posters in copies of the Daily Prophet before the Ministry fell.

“What the bloody hell are Death Eaters doing here? Acting like they are allowed to be here!” Neville whispered furiously to Ginny.

“I don’t understand, but why isn’t McGonagall doing something?” Ginny whispered back.

The two didn’t need to whisper for very long, because before long there were whispers going all around the school as everyone noticed just who were standing in front of the first years.

Finally, McGonagall stood up and the whispering stopped immediately.

“Now,” Her voice didn’t sound as strict as it normally was, which surprised many students, “The Headmaster will speak just before the Sorting begins.”

“Wait, Professor, we thought you were gunna be Headmistress!” Shouted a fourth year Gryffindor.

“No, she is not.” Said a voice Neville and Ginny were hoping not to hear. “I am the new Headmaster.”

Snape stood up from where he sat at the center of the row of seats where Dumbledore normally sat. This caused about half the student body to whisper or yell.

_You have got to be joking._ Ginny, Neville and Luna thought despairingly.

The yelling suddenly stopped when bright red sparks came from the wands of the Carrows, who turned menacing.

“Shut up and let the Headmaster speak!” The man, Amycus, yelled, silencing the whole student body.

“Now, welcome to Hogwarts.” Snape nodded to the first years, who all seemed rather scared now, not completely understanding what was going on. “I am Professor Snape, Headmaster of Hogwarts. I will just go over some of the rules before we will continue with the Sorting.”

Neville turned to face Ginny, incredulous. “What is going on? Why is Snape Headmaster? Why are there now three Death Eaters as professors here?”

“I think Luna was wrong.” Ginny seemed to ignore the barrage of questions coming from Neville, causing him to pause and look at her confused. “She said Hogwarts was safe.

“She was wrong.”

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: I'm trying really hard to stay true to the book in most aspects, with a few tweaking, but one of the good things about choosing Neville is that we don't know much about what happened during the school year, or not enough to bring a day-to-day picture to it.  
> Well, here is the first day back to Hogwarts!  
> See ya next chapter!


	3. Why

After the Sorting, Neville noticed most of the other students were nervous, even some Slytherin students to his surprise. There were low mutters under the normal babble of dinner talk.

“I can’t believe this, Neville.” Seamus said while eating as much as Ron. “It doesn’t make sense, why are there Wanted people _teaching_ here?”

Neville shrugged, repeatedly glancing over at the professor table. That seemed to be the question of the night. People were wondering why these shady people teaching, especially when they found out which classes. The lady, Alecto, was going to be teaching Muggle Studies, and most students who took the class shouted at that, demanding to know what happened to Professor Burbage, but were shouted at to shut up with no real explanation. As for the guy, Amycus, he was going to be teaching Defence against the Dark Arts, which caused a whole uproar from the Gryffindor table. Only when Professor McGonagall stepped in did the Gryffindor table settle down.

Finally, everyone was finished eating and the students were told to get to their dorms. Neville and Ginny quickly found Luna and spoke in undertones to each other until they reached the stairs.

“We’ll talk more, I’ll bet a Galleon on it.” Neville said, hoping Luna would understand.

Luna smiled knowingly and waved as she walked away, heading to her own Dormitory.

“I still want to talk to the Professor. She has to know more about why the school is now like this.” Ginny grumbled.

“We can’t right now. She’ll most likely go to the Dorm before curfew to talk to the First years, like always.” Neville reasoned.

Ginny grumbled more before reluctantly relenting, walking with Neville to the portrait of the Fat Lady.

“Ah, more familiar faces!” She called, waving to the two. “How have you been, now?”

“Great.” Ginny said sarcastically.

“Sorry, she’s annoyed.” Neville apologized as he saw the confused look the Fat Lady was showing.

“Well, she hasn’t been the first.” She huffed lightly. “Now, password?”

“ _Solidus_. Sorry.” Ginny mumbled after a bit of a pause.

The Fat Lady nodded, not saying a word as the portrait swung open, and the two walked through.

“Oi, Neville!” They heard a voice from the fireplace. “Is it really just gunna be us? Where’s Ron and Harry?”

“I… Don’t know, Seamus.” Neville frowned, realizing he was right. It was such a strange thought, because there has always been the five of them. Now, with Harry, Ron, and Dean not even at school, it was going to be much quieter.

* * *

 

A few hours later, just a bit before curfew, Professor McGonagall finally came to the Dormitory.

As soon as the first student noticed her enter, the barrage of questions started.

“Professor, what’s going on? Why are there suspected Death Eaters here teaching? Why aren’t you Headmistress? Hell, why aren’t you Deputy anymore? Why-”

“Enough!” The professor demanded, and everyone shut up. She sighed heavily. “I can’t answer all your questions, because I also don’t understand much. The new Minister appointed Snape Headmaster, and then I hear…” McGonagall paused, thinking better of finishing that sentence, causing several students to start talking before she glared at them.

“Anyway, soon after Professor Snape became Headmaster, I learn about those two new teachers becoming the new Deputies.” She finished, and for a bit, there was silence.

McGonagall decided during that period to welcome the First years properly and went over the rules before taking her leave, telling everyone curfew started and they should all go to sleep. Some of the older students tried to protest but McGonagall just gave them a look and left.

“Well, this sucks.” A fifth year grumbled.

* * *

 

Neville rubbed his eyes, yawning slightly as he ate silently with Ginny, who looked as tired as him. They had stayed up most of the night messaging each other with Luna using the magic Galleon from when they were part of the DA. They couldn’t figure out what to do, so they just discussed what they knew.

When breakfast was done, Neville nodded to Ginny before getting up to go to his first class, Herbology. Maybe being around plants would help sooth his mood, so he was looking forward to the class.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Sorry this is a little short and possibly not the best written, but I just needed to figure a way to explain a bit more before the good stuff, and by good stuff, I mean next chapter. This and the next chapter were originally one, but, as you'll soon see, the next chapter is a bit long.  
> See ya next chapter!


	4. 'Defence Against' The Dark Arts

“Hello, students.” Neville had been dreading going to this class, but knew he had to at least see what this would be like.

“I’m Professor Carrow and welcome to Defence against the Dark Arts.” He seemed to start wheezing, before Neville realized he was laughing.

_Well, this just keeps getting better and better._ Neville rolled his eyes as he glanced at Seamus sitting next to him.

“I hope you all have your textbooks today.” Carrow continued after his wheezing/laugh stopped.

Several students took out their required textbooks and placed them on their desks, but before they knew it, they were all alight. Neville, who was holding his copy, yelled with the other students and quickly dropped his book.

“What! What was that for?” Padma Patil exclaimed, as she and a couple other Ravenclaw students tried to save the books, but it was too late. They were all now kindling.

“Why not?” Carrow gave another wheezing laugh as he watched the Ravenclaw students futilely try to save the books. “We won’t be using those stupid things.”

“Then why make us buy them?” Michael Corner incredulously asked, stopping his fellow classmates from continuing to try to get the books.

“Because I’ve always wanted to burn them all like that, that’s why. Now shut up and listen to your professor when he speaks. No interruptions.” Carrow snapped.

Neville was restraining himself from socking the man right then and there, knowing if he did, nothing good would come of it.

Carrow continued talking, and with everything he said the students started to look more and more incredulous.

“Now, you there, girl, come here and I’ll show a demonstration.” Carrow said, pointing to Padma who paled and froze where she was.

He didn’t let her hesitate for very long, growing angry and a red light flashed right to her and before anyone could realize what happened, they heard Padma screaming and writhing on the ground in what seemed to be pain. Everyone had seen this before in their fourth year with ‘Moody.’ Neville paled at the sight and memory, along with a couple of Hufflepuffs.

“Padma!” Parvati screamed, rushing to her sister but froze in place when Carrow pointed his wand at her threateningly.

“It’s her own fault for not hurrying.” He cackled, and stopped the curse.

Padma gasped, shivering. Neville, because he was the closest to her, knelt by her to check on her.

“Get away from her, boy, if you don’t know what’s good for you.” Carrow yelled. “She still has to get over here for the demonstration.”

“No, she needs to go to the Hospital Wing.” Neville glared at him, placing a hand on Padma’s arm lightly for reassurance, noticing as he did, she stopped shivering as hard.

“Are you disobeying me, boy?” Carrow narrowed his eyes at Neville, pointing his wand at him this time.

“No, _sir._ ” Neville ground out. “I’m just suggesting you let her rest in the Hospital Wing. She’ll be barely able to stand after that.”

Neville didn’t even see the curse, because he was looking at Padma to see how she was.

The pain was unbearable. He felt like his very core was burning, his skin melting, his bones and nerves being thrown into lava. He all his senses fled, so he couldn’t see or hear, but he knew he was screaming distantly.

It felt like hours had passed before the pain was gone. Neville found himself on the floor, panting heavily and shaking, being stared down by his classmates with varying expressions. Some were angry, some were scared, while others–mostly the Slytherins–were grinning smugly.

Neville struggled to push himself up, only managing to get half up. He struggled to see properly, as things were slightly blurry if he didn’t concentrate on something. He saw Carrow standing where he had been for the entire time, his creepy wheezing laugh echoing through the classroom.

“Anyone else?” He cackled, leering at the other students, and while the other Gryffindors wanted to hex him, they all knew they wouldn’t be able to, so they backed down. “Good, now, girl, get up now!”

Neville looked at his classmate lying next to him struggle to get up. He wanted to protest and stop her, but couldn’t use his voice. He wasn’t sure if it was a spell or because of his screaming, but he could not make a noise. He watched helpless as Padma got up shakily and walked almost drunkenly toward Carrow.

“Good, now girl, you stand there, and if you don’t move, you might not get hurt too badly.” He gave a wicked look and took a couple steps back. “Now, students, this is the first spell you will all be learning.”

Whatever was the spell name, Neville blacked out for a second, so he didn’t hear it. But he did recognize the purple flame that streaked right to Padma. It was the same curse he saw Hermione suffer from when they had been fighting Death Eaters at the Ministry almost two years ago. Padma gave a look of surprise and crumpled on the floor, or nearly did if her twin had not rushed forward and caught her before her head crashed onto the ground.

Parvati did not even look at Carrow as she cried for her sister to wake up, shaking her gently before getting more scared and starting to shake her harder.

“Oh, shut up, she’s not dead.” Carrow snapped at the crying girl. “I only grazed her, you idiot girl. If she had moved even a bit she would have been fully hit and then she’d be dead, but that would be her own stupid fault, now wouldn’t it?” He cackled.

Neville noticed about half the class bunch together, with a look of murder in their eyes. Neville shook his head violently, and luckily one of the students, Lavender, noticed him and made motions to the others they shouldn’t.

“Well, I think class is done for today.” Carrow gleefully said, walking over to the Patil twins. “Now I should bring this girl to the Hospital Wing because she was _accidently_ hurt during class. Up, help her up, girl.”

As the other students started to leave, Lavender Brown walked quickly over to Neville to help him up.

“Why are you helping me? Shouldn’t you follow Parvati and…” Neville trailed off.

“I can still follow them if I bring you to the Hospital Wing. You’re also hurt, if you can’t remember.” Lavender replied, holding Neville’s waist with one arm while another kept Neville’s own arm around her shoulders.

Neville was relieved to have help getting to the Hospital Wing, and the two slowly got there, taking small rests so he could regain some strength.

“Sorry for taking so long, Lavender, I know you want to see your friends.” Neville said as he and she finally reached the doors to the Hospital Wing.

Lavender shrugged, trying not to look as worried as she was. “Its fine, I said this before. I want to help you, though, because you did stand up for her. I’m sure both the twins would agree with me when I say thank you for that.”

They entered the Wing, and were lucky not to have to wait for Madam Pomfrey long as they saw her right by one of the nearby beds, currently occupied by an unconscious Padma. Madam Pomfrey saw the two and looked worried.

“What happened now?” She demanded, not leaving Padma’s side, but indicating Lavender to put Neville on the bed next to her. “I’ll be with you as soon as I figure out what happened to this one, dear.”

“A professor att-” Lavender started, but Parvati interrupted.

“Neville accidently hit himself with a spell around the same time as Padma was hurt.” She rushed, giving Lavender a look that Neville didn’t understand.

“Well, at least you’re awake, I think you’ll just need to rest a bit then, dear, before you can go.” Pomfrey looked quickly at Neville before getting back to Padma.

“Madam Pomfrey, she was hit with the same spell as Hermione a couple years ago.” Neville told her quickly.

“The same…” Madam Pomfrey’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates before rushing to collect ingredients. “I should hurry then!”

“Hermione?” Parvati and Lavender looked at Neville confused.

“That spell. I’ve seen it before.” He replied, laying back to be comfortable.

“What? When? Where?” The two girls rushed to his bed.

“I just said, two years ago. At the Ministry of Magic. I was hiding from Death Eaters with Harry and Hermione when we were spotted by a couple and one had attacked Hermione with that curse. I think she needed a lot of potions for a while before she got fully better.”

“Oh my god.” They breathed, looking at each other despairingly.

Before long, Madam Pomfrey came back with a bunch of bottles of potions and carefully had the unconscious Padma drink a couple of them. After that, she shooed the two girls, telling them Padma would be fine and they should get to their classes.

“I mean, really, it’s the first day back and I already have to patients.” She huffed as the two girls left.

She turned to Neville, now that she knew the girl would be fine. “Now, dear, they say you hit yourself with a spell?”

“Not exactly.” Neville told her the truth, and saw her pale.

“That bastard! Doesn’t he know professors aren’t allowed to harm the students?” She turned livid, which was a sight not many people saw. But then she stopped and her fight seemed to leave her.

“What’s wrong?” Neville questioned.

“Nothing, dear. Nothing.” Madam Pomfrey waved her hand at him. “Just have to think about a few things.”

She returned her attention to Padma, letting Neville rest for a couple hours before saying he was well enough to leave.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Notes: Crappy way to end a chapter, but if I hadn't ended it, I don't know how I would have been able to.  
> I've been doing a lot of research on the spells in Harry Potter, and I gotta say, finding some that are Dark, and that wouldn't actually kill anyone, is really hard to find...  
> Maybe I should make up a few spells? I don't know, I might not, but if I can't find a spell that does what I want, I might have to.  
> Anyway, see ya next chapter!


	5. Bring Back?

_Where’s Neville?_ Luna wrote carefully on the coin. _He said he would see us before this class._

She glanced at her friend over at her own house table. There were times when Luna wished students could sit at whatever table they felt like sitting at. Even though Luna had some nice acquaintances from her house, she rather liked being with Neville and Ginny, who were her first real friends, along with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Luna turned back in her seat, looking for her favourite snack, and was delighted to see some variety today. She took some pudding to save for after she ate her meal.

She felt the coin heat up, and picked it from her pocket.

_I don’t know._ It said. _None of the Seventh Years that saw him last would say anything to me._

Luna hoped Neville was okay. It wasn’t like him to be so late for lunch. And he even said he would talk to them before they had to go to class.

_Oh, I’m sure he’s fine._ She thought reassuringly.

Finally, lunch was over, and neither girl had heard from Neville or found out what happened to him. They met up at the great double doors and started walking to their class. Because they had both passed with flying colours during last year’s OWLs, Luna and Ginny were in the same Defence Against the Dark Arts class.

The two girls discussed the whole way to class about what could have happened to their friend, but shut up when they reached the classroom.

* * *

 

_Sorry about not telling you what happened._ Neville slowly wrote on the coin, hoping his friends would read this before supper. He had forgotten he had the magic Galleon on him, and forgotten he was going to talk to Luna and Ginny before they had that class. He just had to hope would be able to handle whatever they were going to have to learn.

_Neville what the bloody hell happened to you?!_ Came the warm response. _Yes, Neville, we didn’t know what happened to you._

_Well, if you want to know, I’ll tell you face-to-face. It’d be too long to write on this coin._ He answered.

His final class finished, so Neville was able to walk to the Great Hall for supper. He didn’t need to wait long before he saw an angry red head and a blonde head bobbing along with the red head.

“Neville, you have a lot to explain.” Ginny said as soon as she came up to him.

“Hello, Neville.” Luna smiled.

“Hey. Sorry, Ginny. But…” Neville quickly explained in hushed tones what happened during his class with Carrow. As he spoke, Ginny got angrier, while Luna became more surprised, getting closer to shock.

“Are you okay?” They both asked. Well, Luna asked, Ginny demanded.

“Yes, even Madam Pomfrey said I’m good.” He replied.

Ginny hummed unconvinced. Luna looked thoughtful, before saying she was hungry and left to go to her house table. Ginny sat next to Neville and ate in relative silence.

They were nearly done eating when Ginny spoke up.

“We need to do something against those monsters we’re supposed to call ‘professors’ Neville.” She said with finality.

“Of course we do. But what should we do?” Neville asked.

“Luna and I have been talking, ever since our own encounter with that Carrow, and we thought maybe it would be a good idea to-”

She was cut off by one of the Carrows, the girl, yelling for silence.

“Finally.” She snapped. “Our Headmaster would like to speak, so let him speak.”

“I have been getting complaints about certain professors, and I would like to clarify a detail.” Snape said in a rather bored tone. “The professors at this school were chosen because they are competent at the course they are teaching.”

He continued on with his speech, but Ginny and Neville stopped listening, too furious to listen.

“What was that idea?”

“We bring back the DA.”

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Notes: Sorry this chapter is short. Kinda just a filler. I'm gunna try to have the next chapters longer.  
> See ya next time!


	6. Dumbledore's Army and the Sword

It took a week for the three of them to get all the original members of the DA to join them again. But by the end of the week, every one of them came back, though in fear now. They saw the DA as a safe haven, and the Room of Requirement became like heaven.

“It’s nice to see everyone here again.” Luna said to the group.

“We know we never wanted this group to continue since Umbridge was fired, but since we have a worse pair of enemies…” Neville continued.

“We have no other choice.” Ginny finished.

“But, last time we had the DA, it was for learning proper magic.” Terry Boot put in. “What would the purpose of this group now?”

“Well, that was what I was going to say next, Terry. Just hold on a sec.” Ginny replied, putting a hand on her hip. “We will still be learning proper magic, as well as actual ‘defence’ against the Dark Arts, since we’ve all seen we won’t be getting any from that bastard Carrow.”

“You sure we can do that? Last time…” Nigel Wolpert piped up from the back of the group.

“Last time we had a traitor. Everyone here would never betray us to Death Eaters, that I know for certain.” Neville stated with finality.

“So, the three of us have been thinking about how to communicate, and decided against using the coins that Hermione made two years ago, even though it was able to get all of you to come back.” Luna said. “We decided to use something similar though.”

She reached into her robes and pulled out a butterbeer bottle cap attached to some thin yarn.

“We got this idea from Luna’s own necklace, and it’s perfect.” Ginny explained. “Because it’ll be more dangerous to use the Galleons, the necklace will be easy to hide under our shirts. You can wrap it around your wrist, if you don’t want to wear it like a necklace. Luna was even the one who was able to perform the same charm as Hermione.”

“You’re telling us Luna was able to perform the Protean Charm?” Terry asked, looking impressed.

“Yes, look.” Luna gave one of the bottle cap necklaces to him before taking off her own and writing a simple greeting with her wand on the inside of the bottle cap. Terry looked even more impressed when he felt the cap give off warmth and read the greeting out loud.

“We’ll give you all a bottle cap necklace now, and soon we’ll have another meeting. I’ll message everyone once we know what to do.” Neville announced, giving everyone a necklace, and the group slowly and carefully left the Room of Requirement until the new leaders were the only three left.

“Well, that went well.” Luna smiled.

Neville let out a big breath he hadn’t known he was holding. “I’m just happy everything went as planned. How does Harry lead everyone so well?”

“Well, he did have Ron and Hermione, well mostly Hermione, to help him.” Ginny reminded him, before frowning. “You know, I just remembered something I overheard on Harry’s birthday.”

“What did you hear?” Luna asked curiously.

“The old Minister, just before that new one took over as the puppet for You-Know-Who, had come to give some things Dumbledore apparently left for those three in his will.” Ginny started.

“Dumbledore left those three stuff in his will? Why?” Neville asked.

“I was just getting there, Neville.” Ginny huffed. “Anyway, not completely sure why, but yes, he did. He left my brother some sort of invention, though I don’t know what it was. Hermione got a book, of course. Harry got a snitch, and that was when I happened to overhear something interesting; Dumbledore also left Harry the Sword of Godric Gryffindor. The Minister said he wasn’t allowed to give it to Harry, but I say, since we know where it is, we can steal it and find a way to give it to him. I’m sure Dumbledore had a reason why he had said he left it to Harry in the first place.”

“Godric Gryffindor’s Sword? Why would Harry need a sword?” Neville asked.

“Don’t look at me.” Ginny frowned. “I’m not Dumbledore. I don’t really know, but if he said he left it for Harry, then Harry must need it for whatever.”

“I say we try.” Luna put in. “We should help Harry in any way we can.”

“Yeah, I agree, but how would we be able to get the sword? It’s in Snape’s new office.” Neville reminded the two.

“We just have to wait until he’s left his office and sneak in. We can confound the statue for enough time to let us in and we’ll be in and out in no time.”

* * *

 

The plan didn’t go as planned.

It was about a month later when they were able to sneak into Snape’s office.

They found a time when Snape was gone from his office, and during that time, the trio tried to get in quickly.

They realized when they tried to use the Confundus charm on the statue. They pleaded for about a minute with the slightly confused gargoyle to let them in and was finally able to get it to let them in.

The trio hurried inside and searched briefly for the sword, finding it on top of a bookshelf. Ginny cast the summoning charm on it and the three were about to leave when they heard a voice at the doorway.

“Just what do you think you are doing?” Came the drawling voice of Professor Snape.

_Shit._ Neville and Ginny thought.

* * *

“Well, I don’ think I had you in detention with me since first year, Neville.” Hagrid boomed as the four of them walked into the Forbidden Forest.

“How did you get into detention in the first year, Neville?” Luna asked, hefting the second lantern up.

“Uh, long story. I kinda blame Harry and Malfoy for that.” Neville rubbed the back of his neck. He quickly explained how he had tried to warn Harry and Hermione that Malfoy had tried to get them into trouble, but ended up getting caught by Professor McGonagall instead.

“You jus’ had the worst luck back then, huh, Neville?” Hagrid laughed kindly at the seventh year.

“Sometimes I think I still have the worst luck.” Neville muttered, looking around them. Since his first year, he really disliked going in the Forest, nervous as if something would come and kill them all.

“That’s not true, Neville.” Luna smiled at him. “You have really good luck; it just doesn’t always show itself as good.”

Neville looked at her, confused, before smiling back, uncertain how to respond.

The four spent a long-but-boring night in the Forest with Hagrid, looking for any sign of anything, but found nothing. They joked around a bit to lift the mood, and for a small bit of time, it felt like the past month was in their imaginations.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Because I was trying to write a bunch of different parts at the same time, things might get a little wonky. I tried to make sense of it, but if it doesn't, either it'll be expanded on in the next chapter or just tell me.  
> Well, it's Christmas Eve. So, as a Christmas gift, tomorrow I'll post a couple chapters of each my ongoing stories! So that's two chapters for this story, two for my GerIta story, and two for my Medieval story!  
> See ya tomorrow!  
> Edit: Finding characters that are young and yet not Muggleborn is surprisingly hard. So if you read Colin, then Justin, I now have Nigel because ugh.


	7. Be Bold

“We’ve been finding many students who need to be punished.” Carrow started, waving an arm to the row of first and second year students being held magically against the far wall. “Now will be good practice for a spell we’ve been learning.” He wheezed his laugh again.

It had been not even a day since Neville and the girls failed in trying to get the sword from Snape’s office. Neville was dreading going to this class, but had to.

“Exactly what do you think we are supposed to do?” Lavender asked cautiously.

By now, everyone knew to be careful about what they said. One wrong word and Carrow would use the Cruciatus Curse on them without a hesitation.

“Well, bad students need to be punished, and you will be using my way of punishment.” He wheezed again as most of the students paled.

A few Slytherins chuckled, particularly Crabbe and Goyle. Carrow ordered them to pick a student and punish them. Most of the Slytherins went along with it happily, but Neville noticed a couple – Malfoy and Pansy –, who were a little hesitant to torture the kids, but still went and participated.

Slowly, at the threat of being cursed themselves, the other students walked to the wall of kids. The Patil twins and Lavender were all crying silently as they pointed their wands at some first year Hufflepuffs. All the seventh year Hufflepuffs could barely move, and stood in front of the wall of kids, shaking visibly.

The room was filled with screams of young kids, making most of the seventh years wince visibly.

Finally, after a few minutes of hearing the screams and deciding what he wanted to do, Neville walked over to the last kid who was not being tortured. The kid was sobbing heavily, and loud enough to just be heard over the screams of her classmates. She was a Ravenclaw, and Neville wondered what she could have done to be deemed bad enough for this sort of punishment.

_No doubt for asking a simple question._ Neville grumbled in his head, before raising his wand. The girl noticed and seemed to try to shrink back, sobbing harder.

Neville glanced around, looking for… Aha, there.

He quickly moved and performed the reducto spell to a table Carrow was leaning on, causing him to fall over. Just like that, everyone stopped, and the room was suddenly dead silent, except for the deep breaths of the kids who tried not to sob.

“I will not hurt these kids.” Neville glared at the ‘professor’ defiantly.

“You little bastard.” Carrow snarled, getting up clumsily. “How dare you do that to me!”

“I’ll do whatever I want to fake professors.” Neville retorted.

“What did you just say?!” Carrow grew livid, and Neville sensed all the students moved away from the line of fire between the Gryffindor and Carrow.

“You heard me. Now let these students go.” Neville demanded, keeping his wand at the ready.

“You little brat. How dare you tell me what to do! I am your professor!” Carrow threw spells quickly at Neville, and he barely had time to dodge or block them himself.

Neville was so preoccupied with defensive spells to protect himself from Carrow that he didn’t notice a red flash coming from his right.

Neville’s nerves were on fire and he couldn’t tell what was real or not. Everything felt like it was on fire.

There was a brief respite, and he could distantly hear Carrow’s wheezing laugh, and a couple screams. Neville guessed one of those screams was his own.

He blacked out after a few more minutes of intense pain.

* * *

 

Neville woke up with his nerves feeling over-sensitive and one twitch caused immense pain. It took a few minutes for him to realize where he was. He felt uncomfortable and whatever he was on was hard. He assumed he hadn’t even been moved since he was attacked. That must mean class was still going on. Carrow would never let any of his victims be moved until class ended, and he was the one who brought the poor student to Madam Pomfrey. As the weeks passed, he became more and more violent, and even started to threaten Madam Pomfrey and the other Healers if they questioned him.

“-is over, sir! Let us take him to the Hospital Wing.” Voices swam into Neville’s ears.

“I don’t give a damn if class is over, you are not moving this wretch until I say so.” Neville felt such extreme anger over hearing this voice, he stopped breathing.

“But he needs to go to the Hospital Wing!” Neville started understanding who was speaking, and was glad to hear the voice was Padma Patil. Since the first day of class and when he stood up for her, she has been very grateful and was becoming friendlier with him.

“Do you think I care about what that bastard _needs?_ Didn’t you already say class is over? Get out now!” Carrow shouted, and Neville heard objects being smashed. He could only guess Carrow was throwing blasting charms at Padma and whoever was with her, since he could hear several shouts and cries and several pairs of feet running out of the room.

“Lousy little bitches.” Neville heard Carrow mutter. He heard footsteps coming closer to him, and felt a powerful kick to the stomach.

Neville cried out and curled up, but not before getting kicked several times on his side and back, before getting kicked over the head. Neville’s head swam in pain, but he curled up tighter, in too much pain to do anything else.

“Damn brat.” He could just hear Carrow snarl at him over the pain. “You really think you can disobey me? Ha, think again. You don’t even deserve to be a pureblood.”

Neville was beaten a few more times over the head before Carrow backed off.

“I still don’t know why we don’t just kill the rebellious ones that never learn.” Carrow muttered to himself.

Neville groaned, trying to alleviate his pain, but every fiber of his being was in pain.

“Oh, shut up, you little brat.” Carrow snarled, and suddenly Neville couldn’t hear his own voice. He guessed Carrow used the Silencing charm on him.

Feeling overwhelmed with pain, Neville decided he’d rather be knocked out than suffer being conscious with Carrow beating him.

* * *

 

Neville woke up to surprised shouting. He opened his eyes slowly, and saw a very concerned Ginny staring down at him. He saw other faces, and recognized them all as Gryffindors. He realized he was in the Common Room, on one of the couches.

“He’s awake!” Ginny gave a call, and the shouting stopped, as if the entire House gave a collected sigh of relief.

“We all thought you were dead, Neville!” Seamus said, appearing in Neville’s view. “When that bastard Carrow wouldn’t let the Patil twins take you to the Hospital Wing after class ended, we all thought he was gunna kill you and throw you to the Squid.”

Neville tried smiling, but it turned into a grimace of pain. The crowd of students crowded closer, all clamouring about what they should do, before Ginny shouted at them all.

“Let him have some room to breathe, guys!” She reprimanded them, and they all backed off, shame-faced.

“Sorry for, ah, worrying you guys.” Neville tried moving, but gave a hiss of pain and stilled.

“Oh, no, you shouldn’t move.” Ginny scolded him lightly, concern flooding her face. “We had a couple fourth years to get Madam Pomfrey.”

“How…” Neville took a breath, trying to ignore the pain in his ribs. “How did I get here?”

The group of Gryffindors exchanged looks. It ended with Seamus and Ginny seeming to have a silent argument. Seamus sighed, and Neville thought Ginny won.

“The bastard Carrow seemed to have dragged you here. Scared the Fat Lady right quick when she saw you. Soon as I got to her, she was frantic, telling every Gryffindor about you. She thought you were dead.”

“Oh, maybe someone, ah, should tell her I’m, ow, okay.” He felt touched the portrait had worried about him.

“Well, we can tell her you’re alive, mate. You don’t exactly look okay.” Seamus corrected.

Madam Pomfrey and another Healer soon rushed into the Common Room, and hurried to Neville on the couch.

“Now he’s not even letting me heal them in the Hospital Wing?” Neville just head the matron mutter furiously as she looked over Neville critically.

The other Healer decided to test how hurt he was, gently pressing along his ribs through his shirt.

“Tell me when it’s painful, okay?” He asked.

Neville nodded, before hissing with pain again.

“I’d say broken ribs.” The Healer told Madam Pomfrey. “We should bring to the Wing, these won’t be fixed in an hour.”

Pomfrey eyed Neville critically again before nodding. The two Healers levitated Neville and carefully transported him to the Hospital Wing. He had to stay overnight, taking a couple potions to mend the bones and any potential internal bleeding they suspected he had.

Luna, when she found out, had come to see Neville before curfew. He knew she was deeply concerned, even if she didn’t really look it.

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay, Neville?” She asked before she was going to leave.

“Yeah, I’m feeling better with the potions Madam Pomfrey and them have been giving me. Don’t worry, Luna. I’ll talk to you again soon.” Neville nodded toward the Healers who were shooing the students who weren’t infirmed back to their Dorms.

Luna hummed before playing with her butterbeer cap necklace. She nodded and said goodbye, hurrying out before Madam Pomfrey could scold her.

When most of the other students in the Wing were asleep, Neville took his necklace off and carefully wrote on the inside of the cap.

_We might need to be more bold.~N._

Chapter Done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Merry Christmas! Here's some pain!


	8. Potterwatch

Most of the students in Dumbledore’s Army thought Neville had gone mad, but when he first explained it to Luna and Ginny, they backed him up and agreed.

They started with open opposition to the Carrow siblings. The other group members would go in packs for protection, but the new leaders would oppose the Death Eaters alone or together.

During a class of Muggle Studies, which had turned into an anti-Muggle class to brainwash the students, Neville almost started a riot.

“I bet you and your brother aren’t even purebloods.” He called out, frustrated with what the woman was spewing. “I wonder how much muggle blood you two have.”

Every student turned to Neville as if he had lost his mind. Amycus may be too jumpy on the spells, but Alecto was worse.

She rounded on Neville, livid. “What did you just call me and my brother?”

“You heard me.” Neville stood up defiantly.

“Why, you lousy sonuvabitch!” She screeched.

Alecto had her wand at the ready before Neville realized she had it in her hand.

He was blasted back, his back almost snapping as it hit the desks behind him. He saw stars briefly before unsteadily getting up.

“This proves it. You’re definitely half-blood with that rea-AHHH” He started before feeling the almost familiar intense pain of the Cruciatus Curse.

“Shut the hell up you little whelp!” He distantly heard the woman screech again, before the pain took away his senses.

Neville was told when he woke up Alecto levitated him as he was unconscious and let him fall from the ceiling to the desks below. At least she let a couple of his classmates to take him to the Hospital Wing before class was over.

_I’m in this Wing so often it might soon become a third home for me._ Neville thought to himself as Madam Pomfrey checked on him for the third time within the past two hours since he woke up.

* * *

 

Other ways Dumbledore’s Army has been opposing the Carrows and Snape has been sneaking out of their Dorms in the middle of the night and carefully spray painting the walls. They normally left the same sort of messages, “Dumbledore’s Army is back”, “Dumbledore’s Army, Now Recruiting”, and “We Say No!”

They were pretty successful with recruiting new members by using this method, and soon there were about fifty members. Most of the new members were second and third years, and majority of the seventh years, from all the houses besides Slytherin.

Neville, Ginny and Luna always spent hours messaging each other using the old coins each day when one wasn’t able to see the others, or if it was late at night.

By now, it was mid-November, and the three could tell something big was happening. Ginny had gotten a cryptic message from her older brothers about a radio, and a password. She and the other Gryffindor’s in the group spent a while dialing around a radio a fifth year had, muttering the password until they heard something interesting.

“… Right, everyone, this channel just got a new name. _Potterwatch,_ to tell you the newest, and truest news going on.”

“Hey! That’s-” Neville cried in surprise, but Ginny covered his mouth with her hand.

“Don’t shout, you idiot.” She hissed, and turned down the volume so only the members around them could hear.

“…Are the only station still kicking without them Death Eaters pumping the information.” Neville was relieved to hear from the former Gryffindor, Lee Jordan. “This is because of many relocations, so bear with us, audience.”

Every Gryffindor who remembered the best friend of Fred and George, and the best commentator for Quidditch games, crowded closer to the radio.

“Now, before we meet with Royal, I should mention the following. We’ve been a lot of messages about the deaths of both wizards and muggles because of the Death Eaters, so we are going to list them, so none are forgotten.”

Neville looked around at his friends worriedly.

“First are some rumours of disappearances.” Lee spoke grimly. “Several young children in the Muggle World have been reported missing. Muggle Authorities currently do not know what’s happened to them, but some members of the Order of the Phoenix have said they might be muggleborn and killed. More to come on the missing children in the coming weeks, hopefully.

Lee continued to list deaths and disappearances of various wizards and witches, along with naming a few muggles killed in strange ways the muggle authorities do not understand. With every name, Neville and the others winced, waiting to hear if it’s someone they know.

“Listeners, I’d like us to take a minute to commemorate the lives of Dennis Hently, Aaron Kirk, and all the unnamed, Muggles and the other wizards and witches I have not said, who were murdered by the Death Eaters.”

The group fell silent, the only noise from the students not paying attention. Neville glared at the radio in anger, because he could do nothing.

“Thank you for the minute.” Lee spoke again, almost startling the group. “Now here is our contributor, Royal, on the new laws the Ministry is making on both the Wizarding World and Muggle World.”

“Thank you, River.” A deep voice spoke from the radio, and Neville and Ginny’s heads snapped forward.

“It’s Kingsley!” Neville whispered to the confused students looking at the two leaders. “He’s part of the Order, a really good guy.”

“He also works in the Ministry. He’s really high up, I think.” Ginny continued. “If he knows what’s going on, it could help.”

They listened as ‘Royal’ gave his report on the Ministry, and the new position being made for Umbridge – which made the group mutter darkly to each other – before he finished talking and Lee come back on.

“Thank you, Royal, for the information.” Lee said. “And with that, _Potterwatch_ is finished for the day. We hope to be back soon for another broadcast, but until we know for certain, keep twiddling those dials. The new password will be ‘Padfoot’. Stay safe. Goodnight.”

Neville jumped as the dial on the radio turned and the radio turned off. The group looked around at each other, speechless.

“Well, at least we know what we’re doing could be good.” Nigel piped up softly.

Chapter Done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: So, I didn't know how to end this chapter. I could have gone on forever, but knew I had to stop it else I'd be rambling.  
> Hope everyone is having a good holiday! Happy winter!


	9. Christmas pt 1

The school was changing before Neville’s very eyes, and it wasn’t in a good way. Most of the school knew by now about the punishments given by the Carrows, and the other professors were ordered to hand over all unruly students to them for punishment. Most of the teachers wouldn’t tell the new Deputies if a student was in detention, and McGonagall was adamant about having her own way of punishment, which was just writing lines or cleaning the Transfiguration classrooms under her supervision. She would not let her students be harmed and kept close watch while her detentions were held.

The Carrows had also decided to enact the rule Umbridge had made when she was High Inquisitor, about clubs having to be approved of by them, since Dumbledore’s Army had managed to spray paint all the stairs with their trade mark DA. Neville and the girls told the other members to be more cautious when sneaking out to write, until only the seventh years were told they could because it was getting harder not to get caught.

Neville also noticed, as the snow came, the cheer the students normally felt towards the coming of Christmas was gone. The Great Hall was almost devoid of the usual chatter and laughter. Houses sat as close as they could to friends, and the loudest noise was plates clattering.

Neville played with the bottle cap necklace as he waited for Luna and the other members about the meeting date. He wanted one last meeting before the holidays, and knew the others would like something happy under all the melancholy.

“Are you sure you want to hold a meeting this soon to the holidays, Neville?” Ginny whispered from beside him. “What if someone is caught as they are heading to Room?”

“We haven’t been caught yet, and look around, Gin.” Neville glanced around at the faces of students who looked like they were almost lost. “Our members need to have a laugh. This oppression is choking everyone, can’t you tell?”

Ginny hummed softly, before looking at Neville and nodding. “Okay. You’re right.”

Neville got the replies from the other members all throughout lunch, all agreeing wholeheartedly for some festive cheer.

* * *

 

“This looks awesome, mate.” Seamus grinned as he walked into the Room of Requirement with the other Gryffindors. They had decided that each house have a designated seventh year to watch a few of the younger years so they got to the Room safely.

The Room was transformed into a Winter Wonderland upon Neville’s wish. There was snow at one corner with a couple premade snowballs ready to be thrown, a table with different Christmas desserts at another corner, and a big empty space in the middle for the members to hang out and talk.

Neville smiled, happy as the noise got loud and laughter soon filled the room. He felt, along with the other students, the oppressive feel lift from them as they soon started a three-way snowball war. It had a surprise ending as the winner was the Hufflepuffs, who all looked as stunned as the other two houses.

All too soon, it was time for them to end the ‘meeting’. Neville stood in front of the group with Ginny and Luna by his side as he wished the others a happy Christmas and to see them all soon.

The other members slowly trickled out until it was just the leaders left.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay staying at school for the holidays?” Luna asked, leaning against him as the three of them sat against the wall.

“Yeah, Luna. I’ll be fine. I know how to take care of myself.” Neville smiled at his friends warmly. “Don’t worry about me. I’d be more worried about your dad, Luna. I’ve heard the Carrows talk about the magazine.”

“Well, it is the only magazine still publishing the truth.” Ginny commented, leaning against the wall, as if trying to push herself through the wall like a ghost. “I wouldn’t worry too much, Luna. If he’s been able to publish for this long without anything happening to him, he should still be okay.”

“Yes, I think you’re right, Ginny.” Luna sighed. “But I’m still worried. I feel like something is going to happen to one of you during the break.”

“I’ll be with you on the train, don’t worry.” Ginny reached for Luna’s arm, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “We’ll be able to still contact each other with the coin and the necklace. If one of us is in trouble, we just need to send an SOS on one of those two things.”

Luna hummed, moving away from Neville’s side to look at her two closest friends with a bright smile.

“Well, we should get back to our houses, right?” Ginny asked as she got up, brushing her pants as she did so.

“Yeah, we should. Come on, Luna.” Neville got up and offered his hand to her. She took it with a smile and Neville helped her stand and they walked side by side to the door, where Ginny had already walked through.

Neville looked up at something catching his eye. He saw the green leaves and small little white berries hanging from the ceiling. It was directly over the two of them.

He stopped and Luna looked at him, her eyes gently questioning.

“Luna, you know about mistletoe, right?” Neville asked, feeling his face warm.

Luna tilted her head slightly before looking up at the small plant hanging overhead of them.

“Which part about the mistletoe? The tradition or the Nargles that hide in them?” She asked, looking back at him.

Neville started to nod before halting, his face scrunching in confusion. “Nargles?”

Luna smiled, before leaning forward and softly kissing Neville on the lips. Neville stilled, before kissing her back, just as softly.

The two parted, Neville feeling his face heat up like it was on fire and Luna turning a shade pinker in appearance. They stood by each other awkwardly before Luna remarked on the time. Neville jumped almost a foot in the air before stammering a response.

Luna giggled before kissing his cheek lightly. “I’ll see you after Christmas, Neville.” She said before leaving.

Neville was smiling the entire walk back to the Common Room.

Chapter Done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Notes: Man, if I knew this was gunna be about Christmas, I would have written it earlier or posted it on Christmas.  
> Blugh, anyway, this was just fluff. A fluffy filler. Of course there had to be Nargles mentioned.  
> If ya'll remember what happens next, you'll be in for a treat!  
> See ya then!


	10. Christmas pt 2

Neville’s Christmas was a quiet one. His Gran didn’t think it was safe for him to visit (which was saying something because he knew she knew about how unsafe it was to be at the school), and had told him in an owl that she’d send his presents soon for Christmas.

The Common Room was almost deserted because most students went home to celebrate Christmas.

During the break, the Carrows and punishment were put on hold and Neville didn’t see them, or Snape, the entire holiday, to his joy.

He hadn’t heard from Luna or Ginny since they left, but Neville didn’t worry too much because he just assumed they were feeling safe and didn’t need to talk.

He kept an ear on the radio and listened to Lee and Kingsley, before also hearing Lupin being added to the broadcasts to talk about Harry and to talk about supporting him. He had almost laughed out loud over Lupin’s cover name, Romulus. _Potterwatch_ was turning to be the other best source of true information, besides the Quibbler, but there hadn’t been a new issue for a couple weeks, and even Luna wondered why her father had stopped before the Holiday break started.

On the last day of holidays and students were returning, Neville was walking to the Great Hall for dinner when he saw Ginny rushing to meet up with him.

“Oh, hey G-” Neville started before Ginny interrupted him.

“Have you heard from Luna at all during the break?” She demanded, looking fierce except her eyes hid her fear.

“Huh? No, I haven’t heard from either one of you since you left.” Neville said, frowning. “Why? What happened?”

“We spent the time on the train together, and I saw my mum when we got to the station, so I separated with Luna and that was the last time I saw her. I don’t know what happened.” Ginny said, sitting down with Neville at the Gryffindor table unhappily. “I couldn’t find her when I got on the train today, and I searched the entire train for her. Even asked the conductor and anyone who could know and they all didn’t know.”

“What could have happened to her? She would have sent us an SOS if she was in trouble, wouldn’t she?”

POV Change

(One week ago, on the Train homebound)

Luna smiled and laughed with Ginny as they sat in the compartment with Seamus heading to King’s Cross Station, even though a small part of her was worried. She hadn’t heard from her father since he had told her he would be at the station to pick her up. With all the worry around the school normally, it started to rub off on her, and she couldn’t help but worry for her father. She would be glad to see him and make sure he’s alright.

They arrived at the station, and Ginny had seen her mum in the crowd of parents and siblings and students, and parted with her, and soon after Seamus found his family and left her.

When there were few people left, a couple stragglers, they swooped in. Three tall Death Eaters suddenly Apparated around Luna, attempting to blast her unconscious. She had noticed just in time to dodge the two spells but the third, which had been behind her, had hit her with the Full Body-Bind curse. They put something dark over her eyes, and she wasn’t able to see a thing. She could still hear, and heard screaming and panic from the few who witnessed it before silence and the strange feeling of Apparation.

She remained blind after they Apparated wherever they were and she felt herself being lifted and carried somewhere. When she was able to see, she still couldn’t see very well because it was dark. There was a cell door, and from her point of view, a vast blackness. The Death Eaters all but threw her in, and undid the Full Body-Bind on her as they slammed the cell door close.

Luna looked around herself worriedly. She had no idea where she was, and didn’t have her wand. When they had caught her, they took her wand from her usual place behind her ear. She had no way of creating a message to Neville, or Ginny, or anyone who could help her if they had either the necklace or the coin.

Luna stopped thinking about that for the time being, feeling if she kept her spirits up, she’d be okay. She decided to look around this dark place she knew she would be staying in until she was either let go or freed. By this time her eyes had adjusted and saw the room was pretty big, much bigger than any room in her home.

She wandered around before hearing a scuttle that almost had her heart in her throat in surprise. She whirled around to find the source and saw what she first thought was a bundle of cloth, but was really a person.

“Hello? Who are you?” She asked, taking a careful step towards it.

“There is another?” The voice was familiar, and Luna had a fond memory of getting her wand a few years ago and realized in surprise that the bundle of cloth was Olivander. He sounded terrible, though, as if he barely had any water or food to have. He looked thinner than she remembered, and gaunt.

“Mr. Olivander? Is that you?” Luna asked, walking towards him, kneeling when she approached him. “Are you okay, sir?”

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: I am so sorry for taking so long to add this new chapter! D: But updates for this story might take a little while. Just started my last semester of college and my final big project may take a long part of my creative time.  
> Originally I was going to write more to this chapter, but seeing as how I haven't added a chapter for this story in a while, I decided to just finish what I had and post now.  
> I will see you in the next chapter! See ya til then!


	11. Michael Corner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter might be graphic.

For the next week, Luna and Mr. Olivander did nothing much besides keep the other company, Luna helping Mr. Olivander a lot with her interesting topics.

“Do you know anything about what is going on, since I’ve been down here?” Mr. Olivander asked the first day Luna was there.

“Not much, sir. I don’t know much outside the school.” Luna shrugged a bit with a kind smile to keep Mr. Olivander calm. “The school itself is going through a really bad period though. There are Death Eaters as teachers and horrible things are happening to the students.”

“And none of the other professors are doing anything?” Mr. Olivander paled so much, Luna thought he would soon go transparent.

“They can’t, sir. Or at least, they can’t publically do anything. The Death Eaters are higher than the others, since they are saying they are the new deputies.” Luna lost her smile, remembering all the times she returned to her dorm to see so many students with bright red welts trying to be hidden under long sleeves. She then started to remember the many times she visited Neville in the Hospital Wing because of his reckless bravery.

“Dear, you alright?” Luna blinked at the hand waving in front of her.

“Oh, sorry. Yes, I am okay, I think.” She didn’t want to worry the man too much with her accounts, so decided to keep quiet.

They talked about other things for the rest of the week, mostly Luna talking about the different unique creatures she knew about because Mr. Olivander couldn’t speak very much without needed a lot of water. They weren’t disturbed too much by their captors, mostly only getting food and water about twice a day, though Luna lost track of the time since there were no windows or any indication of time besides the food.

After the week, Luna did not have much else new to talk about with Mr. Olivander, and decided to search the entire cell they were trapped in, finding a few useful items, like a sharp nail and a broken lamp. Mr. Olivander had told her that there was no way out, since he had been trapped in there for months.

“Well, we will just have to hope for something favourable to happen to us.” Luna told him optimistically.

POV Change

Neville and Ginny did all they could to contact Luna, but they never heard anything from her by either the necklace or the coin, and both worried that something horrible had happened to her. They spent hours listening to _Potterwatch_ in case they hear anything about Luna, always giving sighs of relief when she wasn’t mentioned.

They continued their rebellion with the DA, Neville thinking it would be a good idea to try to save the poor students who would get caught and chained up to be tortured. They had been very successful in freeing dozens of students, until one night.

Neville was just waking up when Seamus had barged in the dorm shouting for Neville. Soon after Seamus came Ginny, her face a mixture of absolute terror, fright, and anger.

“What happened?” Neville could barely think as he got out of bed to get to his closet.

“It’s Michael.” Ginny’s voice strained to not crack, and Neville woke right up.

He asked Ginny to leave as he hurriedly got dressed and soon the three of them were rushing to the Hospital Wing to a gruesome sight.

Michael Corner was levitating over a bloodstained bed. He had severe gashes along his arms and his school shirt was almost torn to ribbons. Neville couldn’t see his back, but from the front of Michael, he didn’t want to think what happened to his back that prevented Madam Pomfrey or the other Healers to let him lay on the bed.

Ginny took one look at Michael and immediately had to leave, hands over her mouth. Seamus looked stricken, unable to speak.

The two waited for Madam Pomfrey to come by to tell them what happened. Seamus and Ginny had told Neville that Michael had been put into the Wing sometime last night, but didn’t know why or what happened to him. Neville guessed it had to do with the so-called co-deputies.

A Healer came by, trying different spells to close the wounds, but none seemed to work, much to the Healer’s frustration.

“Ma’am, can you tell us what happened to him?” Neville asked after a minute of watching the Healer fruitlessly try to close Michael’s horrible wounds.

“Ugh, I don’t know, dear. Poppy should know. She was just called away for a moment, but should be back.” The Healer stopped her fruitless attempts, opting to just clean the wounds as best she can.

Seamus groaned. Neville felt like agreeing with him, but couldn’t, still watching Michael with a mix of horror and anger.

“I’m going to have to ask you two to leave here until Poppy returns, and then you can ask her all the questions you must.” The Healer turned to the Gryffindors with a very forced smile.

The two left, finding Ginny leaning against the wall opposite the door. She looked up at them as they stepped through the door.

“Sorry.” Ginny couldn’t meet their gazes, as if ashamed. “I couldn’t stand seeing him like that. It’s too horrible.”

Seamus walked up to her and rubbed her arm. “No one should have had to see someone like that, Ginny.”

“We just have to wait for Madam Pomfrey to get back from wherever she went off to.” Neville told her.

They didn’t have to wait long for the head Healer to show up, and when she saw the three of them, she gave a big sigh as she approached them.

“I am assuming you are going to ask what happened to your friend in there.” She didn’t even ask them, she was stating.

Neville nodded. “We only heard that he had ended up there last night, but we didn’t know he would be like…” He trailed off, imaging the floating Ravenclaw boy.

“It’s disgusting, horrible. Oh, I can’t even describe how I felt seeing such a poor boy in such a state.” Madam Pomfrey beckoned them into the room again, Ginny a little hesitant.

“What happened?” Neville prompted, not wanting to see a fellow student in what must be extreme pain if he were awake.

“He was trying to ‘release a delinquent from their punishment’ or at least that is what the Carrow woman said as she handed the poor boy to me.” Madam Pomfrey reddened in rage, stomping to Michael’s bed, whipping out her wand and a bunch of vials from her cloak. “Found out this morning the ‘delinquent’ was a first year Hufflepuff student who had accidently hit Carrow’s brother with a small shielding charm. They were chained up and were going to be for the night when Mr. Corner had tried to save them. Both Carrow’s found Mr. Corner trying to unlock the chain and ‘disciplined the brat’ before giving him to me.”

All three students paled, Ginny looking torn between fainting and running after the Carrows and throttling them. Seamus and Neville were furious that a fellow student had been so badly beaten he was unconscious.

“And the worst part of the whole thing was the poor boy was still awake when I got him.” The three students froze in horror. “I had to give him a sleeping draught to give him some reprieve of the pain. And it is taking a while to get these blasted wounds to close.”

“But…” Ginny cleared her throat a few times before trying again. “But he will be okay. Won’t he, Madam Pomfrey?”

“I will do my best for him, but I hope he will be. If I cannot help him, he might have to go to St Mungos.”

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Notes: Well, holy hera. I can apparently kinda write graphic shit?  
> I'm happy I can finally post a new chapter for this, sorry it took so long for a new chapter. School and final project story are my first priorities. And since right now I have March Break, I can actually sit down and write for my fanfics, as well as my Final project story. Yay! \\(^.^)/  
> Anyway, this was fun to write, but poor Michael... I had actually forgotten that he had been badly beaten because he tried to save a first year. '~'  
> See ya next chapter!


	12. Who are we!

Michael Corner had to stay in the Hospital Wing for about a week, but Neville was happy to know he wasn’t going to St Mungos, at least. Over the week, several friends of Michael, including almost everyone from the DA had visited him at least once during the week when he was awake finally. The pain was apparently so bad he was only allowed to be awake for a few hours before Madam Pomfrey makes him drink a sleeping draught with his medicine.

Neville and Ginny had decided the first day Michael was in the Hospital Wing to tell the others to cease all outright opposition so no one else would end up in the Wing again. It made Neville furious and sad that they might not be able to save the students anymore, but knew it was for the safety of those who looked up to him and Ginny as leaders.

When Michael was finally released from the Hospital Wing, Neville, Ginny, Anthony and Terry were there to bring him to the Great Hall for supper. He was a little unsteady on his feet, and Ginny was insistent on helping him walk. Neville remembered they had dated, and could tell she still cared for him, particularly when she had first seen him in the Wing.

“Are you really okay, man?” Anthony asked as they reached the Great Hall.

“Madam Pomfrey says I’m dandy, though I shouldn’t do anything too much. Good thing I’m not in Quidditch, huh?” He cracked a smile and the others relaxed a bit, smiling with him.

The smiles were wiped off their faces as they entered the Hall and saw the reasons why Michael had been put in the Hospital Wing. The Carrows were watching the students like vultures watching over dead prey.

Michael stopped for a moment, before asking for Ginny to stop helping him. She looked concerned as she pulled away until he spoke.

“I’m not going to let them feel like they got to us because of what happened to me. We just have to be smarter about how we are going to rebel now.” He said, looking between the other four. They all smiled again, and Terry and Anthony walked with Michael to their house table while Ginny and Neville headed to their table.

“Send a message to the DA, tell them what Michael said, and that we should have a meeting in a few days.” Ginny told Neville, who did as she said.

POV change

Luna guessed by now it was February, and was a bit sad she was still not able to contact Neville or Ginny or anyone. She was also sad that the last time she had seen Neville was after they kissed. She wondered if she would ever see her friends again, and hoped she would, she just needed to be positive about it.

Suddenly, she and Mr. Olivander heard furious screeching above. Luna recognized the voice, but couldn’t place a name to the voice. It reminded her of the Department of Mysteries, but she couldn’t understand why. Luna couldn’t understand what the person was yelling, but could only tell they were very mad.

Luna couldn’t tell what had been happening outside since she had been imprisoned, but there was the one time a few weeks ago when a few death eaters had come in to take several locks of Luna’s hair, none too gently, to ‘show to the old lunatic.’ It had hurt a lot, and Mr. Olivander had said she might be bleeding from her head. They had to waste some of their limited water to stop the bleeding, Luna constantly apologizing to the elderly man.

“Why should you be sorry for something another person did to you, child?” He gave Luna a kind smile, something Luna was certain he had not done since he had been trapped in this room.

“She seems to be fairly mad, doesn’t she?” Mr. Olivander remarked to Luna, drawing her back to the present.

“Yes, she does.” Luna agreed.

It became quiet again, as the noise above them stopped, and the two prisoners were lost in their own thoughts.

POV change

“They are trying to scare us into submission, guys.” Neville insisted to the scared DA. “They want everyone to do as they say. We can’t let them think we are going to give up.”

“Come on, guys. Who are we?” Ginny cried.

“Dumbledore’s Army.” A few called half-heartedly.

“What?” Ginny lifted her ear, as if to hear a ghost’s soft wailing. “I couldn’t hear that. Who are we?”

“Dumbledore’s Army!” Half the group now called with more conviction.

“One more time! Who are we!” Neville joined Ginny’s cry.

“Dumbledore’s Army!” Everyone shouted back.

“Good!” Ginny grinned widely. “And as Dumbledore’s Army, we are not going to let those Death Eaters easily win the school!”

“Yeah!” Ginny really knew how to wind up the group with energy.

“We just need to figure out a different way of rebelling against them.” Neville told them when they quieted down. “I will not stand to see another one of you to end up like what happened to Michael.”

“We need to be smarter.” Ginny said. “Recklessly saving everyone is something most Gryffindors would think is the right way, but after seeing what it leads to, we can’t have that happen again.”

“Bet if Luna was here, she’d think of something really out there that could work.” A fourth year Ravenclaw muttered, and the energy all but disappeared from the room.

Ginny looked over at Neville, whose face fell at the comment. “She’s okay. We have to believe she’s okay, Neville.”

“Yeah.” Neville took a deep breath and looked at the group. “So, whenever someone has an idea as to what we can do, tell us you have an idea and we’ll see what it is. Ginny and I’ll tell you guys when the next meeting will be, okay?”

Several students left after the meeting was over, the rest staying to say an idea they thought up and wanted to tell the two. Most seemed very reckless or lacking a guarantee that no one will be caught.

“Keep thinking, don’t rush with those ideas, guys.” Ginny told them after the tenth student told them his harebrained scheme. “And if we don’t leave soon, the Prefects will be suspicious, or worse, the Carrows.”

Soon everyone but the leaders was gone. Neville had just realized the room was still set up from their last meeting before the break, and glanced angrily at the mistletoe. If they hadn’t kissed, Neville wouldn’t have missed Luna as much as he did. It felt like fate was laughing at him, as it did every year. He always had the worst luck, since he was a kid. Finding out about his magic late, continuously losing Trevor (though he was happy he knew Trevor was in the Lake now), the Cornish Pixies from second year, breaking his arm the first year, the list went on. And now the list had ‘finding someone who liked him only to have her disappear/be kidnapped.’

He sighed and leaned against a wall. Ginny watched him with a look of concern, walking over to him.

“You’re not doing well, are you?” She said in a way that it was a question and a statement in one.

Neville nodded. “The world loves messing with my life, making it a living hell. It’s just one thing after another.”

Ginny put her arm over Neville’s shoulders in comfort. “I think the world is just trying to make life interesting, not a living hell. If we don’t do anything about our situations, then it’s a living hell.”

Neville chuckled. “Sure. Then explain how we are supposed to help Luna?”

Ginny was quiet, unsure how to answer. Neville shook his head and started walking to the door, Ginny at his heels.

They walked quickly and quietly to their dorm, careful for professors and prefects. Once they reached their Common Room, they went right to their own dorms, Neville hearing the soft snores from Seamus. He was always impressed with how quickly the Irishman could fall asleep.

Neville changed, and before heading to bed, he checked the magical coin one last time, hoping to feel it warm up with a message, slumping slightly when it was as cold as ever.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Thank whatever person decided there should be a week of no school in March! I've been able to write a lot more for my fanfics.  
> I don't really have much else to add. If I don't add another chapter relatively soon, I don't know when the next chapter will be up, because school again. I'll try to find times to write!  
> See ya next chapter!


	13. Doom and Determination

February came and went and very few actually cared when Valentine’s Day happened. The few couples went around practically joined at the hips – or lips in some cases – while everyone else barely noticed the dates.

Neville and Ginny spent the day thinking of the people they cared for that weren’t at school. Ginny kept glancing at the radio while Neville was playing with the magic necklace.

After a day of them feeling depressed over not having their loved ones around them, the two leaders grew more determined to cause sneaky mischief with the other members of Dumbledore’s Army on the so called professors. In meetings, they would learn and teach the others basic healing charms, defensive spells, and not-so-visible offensive hexes, the various spells they were supposed to learn anyway.

It helped to learn the spells when more first and second year students started joining, having no idea how to perform any spell that wasn’t part of the Dark Arts. It enraged Neville to see such innocent kids being forced to learn horrible spells before they even learned proper magic.

But at the same time, he saw the younger members start to smile when they learned how to produce the _protego_ charm for the first time, when they didn’t flinch when they made a mistake practicing various spells, or when a first year was able to produce a full patronus charm before most fifth years (it had been a normally happy-go-lucky Hufflepuff first year, and the whole group held a celebration party for her the next day).

But the good times did not last long. The Carrows still tortured many students, and Neville had gone to the Hospital Wing multiple times a week because he would talk back or defend another student or some other reason, trying to break him. They couldn’t understand why he was so stubborn to break, even after all their different methods, sometimes even going to the point of using cursed objects on Neville only. He would always leave Dark Arts and Anti-Muggle Studies unconscious and/or bleeding from rather deep wounds and dragged to the Hospital Wing or the Gryffindor Common Room. There were even times they wouldn’t even move him from the classroom, and normally woke up by a brave little third year with a Healer at their heels.

Groaning, Neville woke up in the now very familiar room of the Hospital Wing, his leg finally not bleeding from a nasty deep cut after a brief fight with Amycus in Dark Arts. He saw many of the Healers, who he now knew by name, moving from one bed to another, tending to various students with less serious injuries than Neville.

One Healer, a middle aged woman named Jazz, came up to him to check over his leg.

“What spell was it this time?” She asked, putting a soothing salve over the wound

“Something like the severing charm, but it wasn’t the same wording as _Diffindo._ ” Neville told her, hissing when the salve touched his wound, before sighing in relief.

“They must have found an older, darker spell equivalent to that spell.” Jazz muttered as she went about casting various healing spells to close the wound, absently giving Neville some potions to dull the pain and hurry the healing. “This is the only wound, right, Neville?”

“Yeah, unless he did something to me when I was unconscious.” Neville mentally checked his body and only felt multiple bruises and the current big wound on his leg. He was actually surprised he had yet to get a concussion from all the times he had his head whack against the wall or floor. Ron would’ve joked about him having a thick skull.

Thinking of Ron made Neville think of his other friends that were most likely hiding. He thought of Hermione, Harry, Dean, Colin and his younger brother, among others, that he had not seen since the last day of sixth year, when everything was uncertain.

The routine continued until it was close to Easter, and Neville again wished Ginny a good break, this time having her promise to write a message on the coin every day to let him know she was okay.

He was in the Room with several other members who weren’t able to visit family over the Easter holidays, trying to find the station.

“Albus, Albus…” Neville muttered the password every few twists of the dial, until he heard Lee’s voice, and quickly the rest of the group fell silent as they listened to the station talk.

“Welcome back, everyone.” Lee said rather breathlessly, as if he had been running just before starting the broadcast. “We apologize for our temporary absence from the airwaves, which was due to a number of house calls in our area by those _charming_ Death Eaters.”

Everyone could hear the sarcasm in Lee’s voice, and a couple gave a sigh of relief to know they were at least okay.

They were silent, listening to the normal routine of the station until Neville’s blood ran cold.

“It is believed that Muggle-born Dean Thomas and a second goblin, both believed to have been travelling with Tonks, Cresswell and Gornuk, may have escaped.” Lee’s voice was formal as he spoke, but Neville stopped listening.

He glanced over at Seamus, who wasn’t able to visit family as well, and his friend was as pale as snow, his hands clenched tightly in balls. They had both worried about Dean and the others, and hearing their friend’s name on _Potterwatch_ was both a sigh of relief and overwhelming worry.

Lee continued to talk about the deaths and disappearances before the traditional minute of silence for respecting the dead began. Seamus was shaking, but Neville couldn’t tell if it was because of relief or not, and could only rub his friend’s arm as comforting as possible.

They continued to listen as Kingsley began to talk about the new wizarding order and how it’s affecting the Muggle world, before the next segment began, with Remus and Pals of Potter. The DA all listened intently as Remus kept morale up for all who supported Harry.

“That’s good advice to give to Harry, maybe he is listening.” Lee agreed. “Romulus, and our usual update on those friends of Harry Potter’s who are suffering for their allegiance?”

“Well, as regular listeners will know, several of the more outspoken supporters of Harry Potter have now been imprisoned, including Xenophilius Lovegood, erstwhile editor of The Quibbler.” Remus said, and almost everyone gasped at the last name.

The others had known about Luna’s abduction by now, but hearing that her father was also captured made Neville’s stomach twist in fear. He hoped Luna was okay, and that nothing had happened to her.

They almost missed what Remus said after that, until Neville heard “well known gamekeeper at Hogwarts School, has narrowly escaped arrest within the ground of Hogwarts, where he is rumoured to have hosted a ‘Support Harry Potter’ party in his house. However, Hagrid was not taken into custody, and is, we believe, on the run.”

They all paused, and Neville remembered the party well enough.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: I seem to have found a lot of inspiration, so you might or might not get two chapters today.  
> I don't know if it's not allowed to use direct quotes from the book, so I kept them to a minimum, but I needed them. It's basically just the actual Potterwatch broadcast from the books. I'm making sure I'm keeping on track with everything, and so far so good, huh?  
> I also don't know if I should have Dean/Seamus a thing in this. Let me know if I should or shouldn't. They are actually kinda cute together. Let me know, yay or nay. If I don't hear anything, I'll use my own decision.  
> Next chapter is gunna be fun, just you wait!  
> See ya then!  
> EDIT: Now all the quotes from the books (or paraphrased quotes) will be underlined. The quotes I used in this chapter are from Chapter 22, The Deathly Hallows.


	14. 'Support Harry Potter' party

Four days ago (One day before trains left for Easter Holidays)

It was one reason Neville had gotten the wound on his upper chest. He had several of the older members of the DA decided to go to the party Hagrid was hosting, which he called “Support Harry Potter.” The older students forbade the younger years to even think about attending, knowing it would not end well. The older students knew how to be sneaky by then, having been tagging walls with the DA symbol at least twice a week under the cover of night.

So, that was how Neville, Ginny, Seamus, the Patil twins, Michael, Anthony, Terry, Hannah and a few other sixth years went down to Hagrid’s cottage in support of his party.

“Welcome! Glad ya can make it!” Hagrid’s voice boomed as he opened the door to his small house.

He ushered the group in, and the two leaders were surprised to see quite a few of other students that weren’t part of the DA in the house already, looking determined but nervous.

“So glad ta see so many of ya here ta’day!” Hagrid announced to the rather large group of people. “Now, do ya all actually support ‘Arry?”

Everyone in the house nodded, Ginny and Neville among the most vocal about their support. Ginny was easy to understand why she supported Harry. She was his girlfriend, or ex, but none believed it was an actual breakup, and she had been good friends with him before that. Neville was clear because Harry and his friends were the reason he took up the role of one of the leaders for the DA (though he didn’t say it explicitly in case one of the other non-DA students told the Carrows), and how he had been there when Harry and the others had gone to the Ministry in fifth year.

After Neville and Ginny told why they supported Harry, soon everyone in the house gave their reasons for supporting Harry. The other Gryffindors said it was because of how they knew him, and all the things the Ministry and the Carrows were saying about him were about as true as Umbridge being a good professor. The Ravenclaws mostly agreed with not believing what the Ministry was saying, and because of his bizarre friendship with Luna (because all the Ravenclaws in the room were friends with the missing girl). The Hufflepuffs simply said they believed what Harry had said last year, and felt like he was in the right, saying they felt a sort of intuition that the others didn’t understand completely.

“Tha’s good ta hear! ‘Arry would really ‘preciate ta hear tha if he were here.” Hagrid went on to tell how he had found Harry after You-Know-Who had been thought to have been defeated the first time.

The atmosphere in the house became relaxed, and they had fun for a bit, until they heard the tell-tale sounds of several footsteps approaching the cottage, and everyone shut up quickly. All the students used the invisibility charms as soon as they heard the steps, Hagrid guiding them to the back door, and they all escaped just before the back was blocked by people, Neville guessing Death Eaters.

Neville and Ginny ran up the hill, guessing the others were as well, before reaching the top of the hill, carefully hiding as they looked back down to the cottage. They saw spells flying, and a few seemed to hit Hagrid as he ran, but they didn’t faze him. The two watched as Hagrid and Fang ran into the Forest, Hagrid lugging a large backpack. Neville guessed he had known he was going to be arrested soon and had packed ahead of time. He hoped Hagrid and Fang were going to be okay.

Neville felt Ginny tug his sleeve and urge him to get back to the Common Room before the charm wore off. He tore his eyes away from the entrance of the Forest where the only outspoken teacher had run off into, and jogged with Ginny back into the school.

Present

Neville shook his head, snapping back to the present to hear Remus say, “May I just add that we here at _Potterwatch_ applaud Hagrid’s spirit we would urge even the most devoted of Harry’s supporters against following Hagrid’s lead. ‘Support Harry Potter’ parties are unwise in the present climate.”

Neville didn’t need to hear that twice. After the party and watching Hagrid run reminded him that the group needed to be careful. It was never bad to be too careful, he had learned this year, and it had almost became the DA’s mantra.

“…I’d like to introduce a new correspondent: Rodent.” Lee said after Remus’s segment was finished.

_“Rodent?”_ The new voice Neville and many of the others hadn’t heard since they had left the new joke shop in Diagon Ally.

“It’s Fred!” “No, that’s George, idiot.” “Nuh uh, dumbass, that’s Fred.” The group fell into bickers as they tried to tell who it was until Neville barked for silence.

“… I wanted to be ‘Rapier’!” The Weasley twin whined, causing a few students to snicker.

Lee spoke, and Neville could almost hear the smile at his friend’s tone. “Oh all right then. Rapier, could you please give us your take on the various stories we’ve been hearing about the Chief Death Eater?”

Neville somewhat wondered if Rapier would be serious or not, and as he listened to the Weasley, he was not even surprised by how lighthearted he was able to make it as he practically made fun of You-Know-Who. Soon the whole group was laughing, and the atmosphere became lighter, happier, a bubble of merriment created in that moment.

They all laughed harder at “he can move faster than Severus Snape confronted with shampoo when he wants to.” Some students had tears rolling down their cheeks as they haven’t laughed so hard in so long.

They quieted down as Rapier finished speaking, and Lee returned to talking.

“Listeners, that brings us to then of another _Potterwatch.”_ Lee said. “We don’t know when we’ll be able to broadcast, but we will be back. Keep twiddling those dials, folks, and the next password will be ‘Mad-eye.’ Keep each other safe: keep safe. Goodnight.”

The dial twisted and the radio turned off like usual, and the small bubble of merriment remained for a while longer, everyone happy for some lighthearted comments made by one of the funniest people the school ever had. Several students wiped tears, grins still in place. Neville smiled along with them, before feeling his magic coin warm up, a message from Ginny.

_Did you hear it too?_ She had asked.

_Yeah, your brother really helped the group here. We haven’t laughed in a long time._ Neville wrote quickly to his co-leader.

_Yes, it was great to hear from Fred again. George told us he had left a couple days ago, and had been worried until we listened to tonight’s broadcast._ Ginny wrote quickly.

Neville told the others, who were still arguing about which Weasley twin Rapier was, and it shut them up, simply enjoying the tension-free atmosphere for as long as possible before they had to sneak back to their Common Rooms.

_I’m just happy to hear that the whole group is still okay. I mean, we hadn’t heard from them for about two weeks._ Neville wrote back as he was the only one left in the Room, leaning against the wall with the radio beside him.

_Yes, but I’m worried about Luna and Dean._ Ginny’s reply was slow, as if she didn’t want to write her thoughts. Neville could agree with her.

_I know, I am too. But we should stay positive. They’re okay, we just have to believe in them like we believe in Harry and the others._ Neville wrote, hoping to have his writing show his convincing.

Ginny didn’t reply right away, so Neville wrote he would talk to her the next day.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Well, would ya look at that! I was able to write two chapters and post them in one day! Yay!  
> I completely forgot about Hagrid, because it had been a while since I had read the book, but looking through it again to get the correct quotes, I saw that, and knew I had to have that in here. I mean, I am trying to keep to canon in this story.  
> I also had to look up what days were what on google, and found out Easter was in April in 1998, tho I thought it was in March, so that kinda made my timeline a little weird. :s I think I've cleared it up now, or at least I hope I did anyway.  
> This is the most research for a story I've done in a while. But then again, this is the first story I've written where I'm trying to keep to canon as much as I can. It's a great experience, tbh. \\(^u^)/  
> I'll see ya next chapter!  
> EDIT: Quotes from this chapter can be found in Chapter 22, The Deathly Hallows.


	15. A friendly sight

Luna and Mr. Olivander heard shouting from above, even louder than any time before. It sounded a bit like a fight, but the sounds didn’t last long before the two prisoners heard a few shouts and then more silence.

Before they knew it, they heard the door to the cellar open, and grunts of multiple people being pushed into the room. Luna stood up to see what was going on, when a piercing scream came from above, causing her to cringe in surprise. She had never heard that sound, even when she passed the classrooms where the Carrows would have their ‘punishments’ done on students.

“HERMIONE!” A loud scream came from where Luna had first heard the cellar door close, and she jumped. There were more prisoners here now, and why did the voice sound so familiar?

“Be quiet. Shut up, Ron.” Another voice hissed, barely heard above the other’s shouting. “We need to get these ropes off-”

That was when Luna recognized the voices. “Harry? Ron? Is that you?” She half hoped she was wrong.

As if she did a spell, the shouting stopped, and Luna took a step closer, trying to see the new prisoners.

“Is that really you? Harry? Ron?” She asked.

“Luna?” It was Harry’s voice, he sounded just as incredulous as Luna felt.

“Yes! It’s me. Oh no, I didn’t want you to get caught!” She took a couple more steps forward, standing in front of Harry.

She couldn’t tell who else was with them, but she saw another form with Harry and Ron.

“Luna, can you help us get these ropes off?” Harry asked her.

Luna nodded before realizing they wouldn’t be able to see her and answered. “I think so... There’s an old nail somewhere that we use if we need to break anything. Hang on, I’ll find it.”

Luna walked back where she remembered the nail had been just as she heard another piercing scream, but this time another woman’s voice was screaming with her. It now hurt Luna to realize the first scream belonged to her friend but she put that thought to the back of her mind. She had to help Ron and Harry get untied.

She reached Mr. Olivander again. He had stopped moving as much as before from lack of enough food or water and lack of light.

“Mr. Olivander, do you have the nail? I think it was beside the water jug.” Luna stooped besides her elderly friend before finding the nail and returned to the new prisoners in seconds.

“You need to be still. I don’t want to accidently hurt you.” Luna told them before starting to saw the rope with the nail.

While she worked, she could now hear a clear shout coming from above.

“I’m going to ask you again! Where did you get this sword? Where?” Luna again felt like she had heard the voice before, but could not be certain who it was.

She heard Hermione scream, and stilled from her work when the ropes jumped as Ron struggled hard against the ropes.

“Ron, keep still. I can’t see what I’m doing-” Luna told them, continuing to try to cut the ropes before Ron interrupted.

“My pocket! There’s a Deluminator, full of light!” He froze for enough time for Luna to reach into his pocket and find a thing metal lighter from his pocket. She felt it over before clicking it and cringed at the sudden light.

Luna had her first look at the people in front of her and saw Harry looking back at her. He had longer hair, and it was even more wild and unruly. But his face was puffed up like a bad bee sting, stretching the skin so it was almost impossible to see his eyes. She saw Ron behind him, facing the cellar door, so she couldn’t see his face just yet. The only thing she noticed was he also had longer hair.

“Oh, that’s much easier, thank you Ron.” Luna said, but before she started her work again, she noticed the other prisoners with the two and was very surprised to see another familiar face, as well as a goblin. “Hello Dean!”

Dean didn’t respond, looking at the goblin, which was barely awake and only standing because of the ropes that tied him up. Luna hurried to hack away the ropes. She did her best to ignore the screams and accusations as she cut the ropes with the nail, which was smaller than she thought it was.

“There!” She said as the final thread broke away, and Harry turned around to see Ron, who had run to the cellar to possibly look for a way out. Dean thanked Luna, but didn’t move. The goblin all but fell.

Luna looked at the other boy carefully. Dean looked grimy, as if he hadn’t been able to bathe for as long as Luna couldn’t. His hair was longer than the other two, and wildly unkempt, as if he had been on the run for a long time and couldn’t rest for too long. His face was bruised and bloody and Luna felt bad for her friend and wondered what happened to him since he couldn’t go to school.

She turned her eyes back on Ron to see him trying to Disapparate without a wand.

“There’s no way to escape, Ron. I’ve tried when I first got here, and Mr. Olivander has been here for a long time already.” She pleaded with her friend, wishing she could tell him anything different.

Everyone heard the screams and cries of Hermione as the other voice screamed profanities and accusations at her, Luna cringing every time she heard the scream of “Crucio” and thinking of Neville at school.

She barely saw Ron pound at the door and Harry walking quickly around the cellar room, before stopping and grabbing something from around his neck, reminding Luna of her necklace. She had felt it warm a lot while she had been trapped here, but could never read any of the messages in the dark, and looked at it again, but saw nothing besides the time for a meeting that must have past already.

She was surprised to hear Harry yell, and turned to see him yelling at a small mirror shard before tilting it in random directions. All the while the room was echoing with Hermione’s screams and Ron’s sobbing. Luna could barely hear, but saw Harry run to the goblin and whisper to him before they all heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

“Stand back, line up against the wall. Don’t try anything or I’ll kill you.” The shaky voice of Draco shouted from the other side of the door.

The guys and Luna did as they were told, and at the last second Ron clicked the Deluminator and the light disappeared. She saw the outline of Draco come inside, and took the goblin back up with him, slamming the door on his way out again, while a loud _crack_ came from inside the room.

Ron flicked the lights back, and Luna was surprised to see a small house-elf standing in front of them, covered in a couple socks and hats. But she was concerned when she saw he was trembling, though she couldn’t tell why.

“DOB-” Ron shouted before Harry hit Ron on the shoulder to shut him up.

“Harry Potter, Dobby came to rescue you.” The house-elf squeaked.

Harry stuttered for a second, but when they all heard the awful screams coming from upstairs, he quickly got his voice back. “You can Disapparate out of this cellar?”

The house-elf nodded, his cute floppy ears flapping as he did so.

“Can you bring humans with you?” When Dobby nodded again, Harry glanced around the room quickly. “Dobby, I want you to take Luna, Dean and Mr. Olivander, and take them to… Take them to-”

“Bill and Fleur’s.” Ron interrupted, telling the house-elf where that was, and he nodded.

“Come back after that. Can you do it?” Harry asked.

The house-elf squeaked an affirmative, before running over to Mr. Olivander, who seemed to have gotten much worse than Luna had first thought when he hadn’t done anything since the three had gotten there. It took a second for Luna to realize what Harry was telling them, and when she did, she froze.

“Harry, we want to help you!” She pleaded, Dean right beside her.

“We can’t leave you here.” Dean said.

Harry looked agitated and rubbed his scar as if it was hurting him as he tried to get them to go to Dobby. They heard Hermione’s scream echo again, and when he pleaded for them to go, they did so, albeit with some hesitance.

As they held onto the house-elf’s hand, a loud _crack_ sounded, and it felt like a normal Apparation. Luna had no idea where they were going, except that she and Mr. Olivander were finally going to escape from their prison after months.

When they landed, Mr. Olivander collapsed in the sand, Luna and Dean stumbling as they let go of Dobby’s hand. They saw a cottage a couple feet away, and Dean walked quickly over there to see if it was the right place, Luna waiting with Dobby and Mr. Olivander.

After a couple minutes, Dean came back with a young couple. Luna recognized the woman from her third year, Fleur, who was now Ginny’s sister-in-law, along with a man with claw marks across his face with the same fiery red hair as Ron and Ginny. Luna sighed with relief.

They made it. They escaped.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Notes: Wow, I had to try to keep really close to the book for this part. Changed some words around because I didn't want to actually use all the quotes, and it would have just took way too long to copy word for word. And anyway, Luna wouldn't really understand what they were going on about. Well, maybe she'd have an idea if she was paying attention to Bellatrix's yelling about 'swords,' but she wasn't so... :P  
> Man, this story is heading slowly but steadily to the ending. It would be around mid-April in the story, and all hell breaks loose... What? May 2? Man.  
> I seriously love writing for this, you have no idea. I think it might be because I'm sticking so close to canon that makes it fun. :3 Anyway, I'm happy.  
> I'll see ya next chapter! ~(^_^)~  
> EDIT: Quotes from this chapter can be found in Chapter 23, Malfoy Manor.


	16. Alone

Ginny was sitting with her family, just finishing dinner when a ghostly blue-silver two-headed fox appeared and spoke in Fred’s voice.

“This is bad.” It said, and Ginny could tell from the tone, Fred was anxious. “Ron was in Malfoy Manor with Harry and Hermione. They know. Hide.”

Mum took one look around the table and they all got up to quickly get packing, leaving within the hour.

POV change

Neville’s heart sank as he reread the words on the coin a third time. First Luna, now Ginny wasn’t coming back to school.

He had just listened to the new broadcast and when Lee talked about the news of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dean and Luna (Neville nearly fell in relief hearing she was okay) he could tell this was worrying the whole group behind the radio. Their voices shook slightly as they tried to keep professional on air. He heard that the entire Weasley family now went into hiding, and Ginny’s message confirmed it.

He realized he was left alone, all his close friends were now gone, and he could only keep in contact with one of them. He had told the rest of the DA about why Ginny wouldn’t be coming back, and they were somber about it. Seamus tried to talk to Neville every chance he could, and both knew it helped the other. Neville had noticed Seamus was more relaxed knowing Dean was okay, in the same way Neville was relieved to know Luna was okay again. The two talked more than they ever had before, thankful for someone they could trust in the school.

As for school work, it was beginning to be harder for Neville to get to his classes without the Carrows starting a fight over something with him, and he normally found himself unconscious after being hit by the same damned curse over and over again. Neville could tell they were starting to see Neville’s role for rebellion and was trying to squash him. They would even just attack him when he wasn’t aware they were nearby.

Many of the members wanted to make sure they were with him so they could watch out for him, but Neville always shook his head.

“What if you guys get caught in the crossfire? I’m not going to live with the fact you guys got hurt trying to protect me.” He told them after a meeting a couple days after Ginny sent the message. “I can take care of myself. And besides, I’ve been doing well so far. I haven’t died yet, have I?”

Most of the members grumbled and backed off, but most of the seventh years still stuck by Neville between classes, saying it was their class too and they might as well go together.

On one walk from Herbology to Transfiguration, Neville was walking with Hannah when she looked over her shoulder casually and cried out, shoving Neville to the side. He saw a streak of purple strike the wall of the hallway, and he whipped his head to the source, swearing when he saw Alecto grimacing as she missed her target.

“Are you too much of a coward to even _try_ to duel me face-to-face?” Neville yelled as he got up, taking his wand out as he did so.

Hannah took a step towards him when Alecto attacked her with the Cruciatus Curse and Neville saw his friend scream and fall, her body contorting and writhing as if her bones were trying to leap from her skin. The hallway filled with her screams and all the students around ran out of the way, emptying the entire hallway except for Neville, Hannah and Alecto.

It all happened in less than a minute. Neville saw red as he heard his friend scream in pain, her voice cracking from the strain. He yelled and struck Alecto with the Stupify spell, and her contact with the torture of Hannah ended. She rounded on Neville, who stood protectively over the Hufflepuff, wands pointed at the other.

The two exchanged spells, Neville using more protective spells so none would accidently hit Hannah, but the fight didn’t last long. A fourth year Slytherin had shown up behind Neville and took Hannah by the hair, causing Neville to lose a second of concentration when she let out a cracked cry.

Alecto took the second to hit Neville with the Cruciatus Curse, and he didn’t know how long he was out, but when he woke up again, his body felt like someone had broken every single one of his bones with the Reductio spell. He saw anxious faces above him, Seamus and Hannah that he could tell right away.

“Oh thank god you woke up!” Hannah was near tears, her voice cracking every time she tried to speak louder than a whisper. “We were, I was, everyone was so worried.”

“What…?” Neville could barely speak, it hurt too much.

Seamus answered. “What happened? Don’t really know, mate. Hannah was half awake, and I only got there after, but you were badly beaten. You okay, mate?”

“Fantastic.” Neville mumbled, closing his eyes. He needed to tell Hannah he was sorry she got hurt because of him, but had no energy to speak or even lift his eyelids.

He drifted off to sleep, grateful for the bliss of no pain.

POV change

Ginny yawned, not because she was bored, but she was exhausted, but was too afraid of the fact that maybe they would be found by the Ministry. She was terrified, and her sleep-deprived mind only added to the fuel.

Mum sat next to her, carding her hands through her daughter’s hair to soothe them both.

After Fred’s warning, Bill’s own message came, telling them to get to Muriel’s quickly. Dad had told her while they were on their way that he and Bill knew something like this might have happened, and so they agreed to be each other’s Secret Keepers, and had had everything planned out since around Christmas.

Ginny felt the same fear she had when she was a first year and had realized something wasn’t right about the diary she had been writing in. She was in over her head, and her family was in the same boat as her. Most of her family was with her, but Bill, Charlie, Percy and Fred were not with them. She wondered bitterly if Percy cared that his boss would now most likely be after his family to kill or torture to find out where Harry was.

She also worried about the school and everyone she couldn’t contact with. She worried about _Potterwatch_ and her brother, risking their lives to keep real information flowing that went against the Death Eaters and You-Know-Who. She worried about Ron, Harry, Luna, Dean, Colin, and many of her muggleborn friends who were now in hiding or who had been captured when they had tried to go on the train.

At the same time, Ginny was frustrated. She could do nothing but hide with her family. She could barely help Neville with the DA, she hadn’t heard about Luna since the radio broadcast, and she was helpless, almost waiting for the Death Eaters to find them. She couldn’t even go outside to fly to clear her head. All she could do was hope for a miracle.

Turns out the miracle was a message in late April.

_I’m very sorry I couldn’t send you a message. ~Luna_

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: And now we see Ginny's POV. The POVs will change between the three of them, since this story is more about the silver trio, but mostly keeping to Neville. Its just, if I kept with only Neville, it would be so much shorter. I can explore more with Luna and Ginny, and have good plot points that Deathly Hallows didn't have in great detail.  
> See ya next chapter!


	17. Messages on a coin

Neville was having a tough time escaping from the Carrows, even with the subtle help from the other members of the DA. The Death Eaters were now onto him being the head of ‘the rebellion’ as they spat over his bleeding body one afternoon when he was unlucky enough to be alone when they attacked.

The next day he had heard on _Potterwatch_ that his Gran was on the run, but not after hospitalizing at least five Death Eaters for trying to capture her. Neville’s mouth hurt from grinning so much after hearing that.

_No one’s able to be a step ahead of Gran._ He thought happily as he limped to Herbology, the one class that became a haven for most students as the Carrows never showed their faces around the plants Professor Sprout had in the greenhouses. Even Professor Sprout was proud of that fact, if her relieved face was anything to go on when each class ended without incident. _She’s lasted this long in the world because she’s been smarter than Mad-Eye Moody._

While Neville focused on being proud of his Gran, a small part of him was worried. Why had they gone after her? She hadn’t done anything…

He heard the familiar wheezy laugh and saw one of the Carrows walking past him, and his heart slowed as he thought carefully.

_It’s because of me that Gran’s being targeted._ He frowned. _Why is it always me?_

It was maybe a week after that moment, and he had felt his coin warm with the incoming message. He hurried to the Common Room, since he was finished classes and had time before dinner.

As soon as he entered the Common Room, he found a quiet place and searched his pockets for the warm coin, and nearly dropping it in shock.

_I’m very sorry I couldn’t send you a message. ~Luna_

Luna? No, Neville was seeing things, it couldn’t be Luna. It wasn’t until he saw another message hurriedly answer the message that he started to believe it was her.

_Luna you daft bat! Are you okay?!~G_

Neville got his wand out to write out his own message as he read Luna’s reply to Ginny.

_Oh, I’m fine now. We all are okay, though I think a few of them are getting itchy for something. ~Luna_

_Luna, you’re really okay? What happened?~N_

It took about a minute for an answer, allowing Neville to send a small message on the necklaces that Luna was okay and he was able to talk to her again. As soon as he had, almost all the Ravenclaw students replied back, making it impossible to read what was said in the necklace.

_Its… A lot to write everything that happened, but I am okay now. I’m safe, with Bill and Fleur and Dean and Mr. Olivander.~L_

Neville was surprised to read that Dean was with her, and even more surprised she was with Ginny’s brother, but at the same time was happy to know she was okay.

_Okay, well, I’m happy to hear from you. Wait, scratch that, I am so happy to know you are alive.~G_

Neville silently agreed with Ginny, reading what Luna wrote. The three messaged each other for hours, Ginny and Neville updating Luna on the various things that had happened since she had been captured. Luna then told them about what she was doing and why she hadn’t been able to call for help, but being very vague about what happened and where she had been. Neville was worried something bad had happened and she didn’t want to talk about it, so he kept quiet, deciding it was time to change the subject.

_I’m glad to hear both of you are okay.~N_

_I feel the same. I’ve missed you both an awful lot.~L_

_Maybe you both can still help with the DA. I mean, G has been helping me a lot even though she’s not here.~N_

_Oh, nothing too bad has happened to the members, right?~L_

Neville paused. He didn’t want to tell her what happened to Michael, but she deserved to know. He quickly wrote a brief summary of what happened, and waited for her reply.

_I think those Carrows need to go. I just wish I knew how to get rid of them.~L_

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Sorry for the cruddy chapter ending. But it had been a while since the last chapter, and I needed to add a chapter sooner or later.  
> See ya later!


	18. Nowhere is Safe

Neville was no longer safe even in his Common Room.

He had just given the Fat Lady the password and hadn’t seen her worried look before she swung open to let him in. He had only taken a step through when he was blasted back and forth as both Carrows ambushed him. He managed to block a couple curses and ducked as he saw the red flash, cueing him to run like hell to find someplace safe for a bit.

He ran through many corridors, hearing the Carrows’ wheezing far behind him as he reached the third floor and the Room of Requirement.

_I need to hide. I need a safe place. I need to hide for a while._ He thought as the door appeared. He quickly glanced around before high tailing it into the room, gasping as he tried to get his breath back. When he could breathe properly, he looked around the room. It was small, like a flat for one person. It was one big room with a small cot in one corner and a toilet in the opposite corner. He sighed in relief before feeling his necklace heat up.

_Neville are you okay, mate? They didn’t get you did they?~Seamus_

_Yeah, I’m fine, I got away from them. Hiding for now. Don’t know when I’ll be able to leave yet.~Neville_

_Oh thank god! When the bastard scared the Fat Lady into letting him in, I was sure he was going to kill someone.~Lavender_

_What’s going on?~Hannah_

_Yeah! Why’s everyone writing now? Is there going to be a meeting?~Padma_

Soon the necklace was bombarded with messages and Neville waited for them to stop before answering as quickly as he could, with the other Gryffindors that were in the room providing more information. He soon felt his coin heat up and looked at it, reading the messages Luna and Ginny gave. Ginny was pissed, judging by how sloppy her handwriting was becoming, while Luna wrote quickly with possibly worry.

_Where are you hiding now, Nev?~L_

_The Room. It was the only place that would be safe for me, if even the Common Room wasn’t safe.~N_

_I don’t think you should go back for a while, Neville. Make sure to ask the others if it’s safe. They must know you’re the leader now.~G_

Neville paused as he read Ginny’s comment. That did seem to make the most sense. But to think they would go so far as to try to kill him…

_I think you should tell the others if they feel threatened they should also hide there. It might just be the safest place in Hogwarts now.~L_

Neville did as Luna asked and the rest of the group consented.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: I'm really sorry this chapter is so short! D: But it's because the part I was gunna have with this chapter is going to be ridiculously long that I had to separate this and that part. You'll understand when the next chapter is posted.  
> See ya next chapter~


	19. Dobby

(2 weeks ago)

Luna and Dean waited with bated breath for their friends to show up. They kept a watch out from the window of Shell Cottage for Harry and the others and every minute felt like an hour to Luna. She was worried she wouldn’t see her friends ever again when she just saw them again.

She shook her head internally, refusing to listen to the downer side of her. Harry and the others would be fine. They were strong and brave, like every Gryffindor. They would make it.

It was about half an hour before the two heard a distant crack, and they stood in front of the window, squinting to see anything. Luna’s eyes lit up as she saw a few figures, and quickly ran to the door to greet them. She opened the door and was on her way down to where they were when she heard a cry.

“Help! Help!” It sounded like Harry, and Luna quickened her pace. He sounded terrified.

She reached them and saw a bit better. Harry was holding a small bundle and Ron had Hermione, who seemed to be unconscious, hitched over his back. The goblin was lying on the ground beside Harry. Luna looked around to find the house elf that saved them, but couldn’t spot him. Her eyes went back to Harry as she heard a soft whisper on the wind.

“Harry… Potter…” The whisper squeaked, and the bundle seemed to shudder. Luna approached and saw the large floppy ears of the house elf and his even larger eyes.

She held hand to her mouth in surprise. She saw a dark stain on the elf’s tunic and knew what it meant. She knelt down next to Harry a little worriedly. She glanced around and saw Bill hug Ron hard but awkwardly and whispered in his ear. He nodded and carefully started walking to the cottage with Hermione still on his back.

Bill and Fleur motioned for Dean and Luna to move a little away from Harry to talk.

“Zis is ‘orrible. What are we to do?” Fleur asked the group and Harry seemed to shut down, having taken out a small knife from where the dark stain was situated and covered the small body with his jacket.

“We will have to do something with his body.” Dean said.

“Yes, I think we should bury him. He was very brave to have saved us. He deserves a burial.” Luna put in.

“Yeah, we should bury him. It would be the right thing to do for him.” Bill agreed, looking at Harry.

“I want to do it properly.” Harry spoke up, surprising the others a bit. He asked for a spade and Dean picked up the goblin, helping him into the house while Harry started to dig. Luna watched him for a moment before leaving him to his work, thinking he would want to be left with his thoughts for a bit.

Luna helped with caring for the three injured with Fleur while Ron and Dean said they wanted to help Harry with digging. Luna had been shocked to see Hermione so badly injured. Most of the bruises were slightly hidden by her clothes, and the one wound she had was horrible. Carved onto her arm was a dreadful word; MUDBLOOD. The writing was neat, as if whoever had done it had done this type of thing to others before.

Luna couldn’t even see the goblin. Fleur wouldn’t allow her, so she went to see the only person she had for months.

Mr. Olivander was sleeping, his face looking relaxed in what must be the first time in over half a year. She smiled and checked to see if he was still okay, relieved to hear the soft breathing, no longer short gasps that would normally mean he was having a nightmare. She often wondered what had happened to him before she was thrown in with him, but common sense told her it would be rude to ask him.

Hermione woke up a few minutes later, and Fleur had told them they should go down to the garden, thinking the boys should be done digging. Luna helped Hermione up and offered her shoulder but the older teen refused, taking careful steps forward. Luna stayed close to her until they reached the small hole. Harry was wrapping the elf more securely in his jacket when they approached.

Luna looked at Dobby, his large eyes glazed over in death with almost a look of surprise. The others couldn’t seem to stand seeing the elf with his eyes open, from their expressions, so she said the only reasonable thing as she approached Harry.

“We should close his eyes.” She noticed Harry twitch and look at her, he was obviously unaware that the others had arrived when he glanced around and saw Hermione and Bill and Fleur gathering around the hole.

She reached for Dobby’s eyelids and carefully slid them shut, giving a sad smile as she saw the elf look like he was just resting. She remarked it aloud, and then Harry gently laid him in the grave.

When he was silent for a few moments, Luna spoke up. “I think we ought to say something. I’ll go first.”

She felt the eyes of the others on her as she gazed down sadly at the elf in the grave.

“Thank you so much, Dobby, for rescuing me from that cellar. It’s so unfair that you had to die, when you were so good and brave. I’ll always remember what you did for us. I hope you’re happy now.” Luna spoke softly, then looking over at Ron to go next, who had been standing beside him.

The others said their brief words before Harry took a few moments to even open his mouth.

“Goodbye, Dobby.” He finally said.

Bill put the earth back into the hole, and that was the last anyone saw the brave house elf, Dobby.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: One of the good things about small differences in movie and book is that I can use things from both. Like, if they hadn't had Nigel in the fifth, or the scene with Hermione and Bellatrix, I would have had a hard time figuring out what to do for some parts.  
> I really hope I'm sticking to a good timeline. I actually needed to find the April 1998 calendar to make sure I was right about dates.  
> So, jumping over the last few hurdles, and that means the ending is approaching! I still would love some input on if I should or shouldn't have DeanxSeamus in this. All I need is like one or two people to say yay or nay.  
> Well, until next time~  
> EDIT: Quotes from this chapter can be found in Chapter 23, Malfoy Manor and Chapter 24, The Wandmaker.


	20. Merriment

Luna walked back with the others, without Harry, because he had asked for some alone time. She was feeling tired, all the energy and adrenaline gone from her system.

They reached the cottage and Fleur asked if anyone wanted anything to drink. Luna and Ron were the only ones who said yes, the others still pretty silent since the burial. They were given some pumpkin juice and the six sat around in the living room.

“So, mind telling us what happened?” Bill asked his brother.

Ron and Hermione looked at one another and told everyone quite an adventure. Luna felt like they left out something rather important, but knew if they were hiding something, it was for a good reason, so she didn’t pry.

Luna and Dean told their brief stories after them, Luna explaining how she and Mr. Olivander had been trapped for months alone together before the others had shown up, and Dean explaining his running with the goblin and a few others until they had been caught by Snatchers.

The newlyweds were silent the entire time the teens talked, taking everything in.

“Well,” Bill whistled, rubbing his neck as he looked at each of them. “The family is going to have to go into hiding now. I guess we’re lucky Ginny’s on holiday. If she had been at Hogwarts they could have taken her before we reached her. Now we know she’s safe too.”

Luna looked down. That was exactly how they got her to scare her dad. She hoped he was okay.

While she was thinking, she missed the conversation Bill had with Harry, who had returned from Dobby’s grave. She saw him walk into the small kitchen and heard the water pour from the sink. Bill looked between all the teens and told them they should get ready to rest.

“You all look like you’re about to drop, anyway.” He said, and Luna and Dean followed him to gather some blankets and pillows so they could sleep a bit in the living room.

~~ One week later ~~

Luna adjusted well to living in Shell Cottage. The first couple days were hard, as she was slightly worried she wouldn’t actually be safe, and kept close to the house. It kept her content, and she would normally help Fleur with Mr. Olivander, when Harry didn’t need to talk to him about something. She was happy to see her elderly friend getting better, and soon he was even able to stand without any sort of pain.

It was on the day he was able to walk a few feet that Bill told everyone that, because the house wasn’t big enough to hold everyone, and since Mr. Olivander was getting much better, he would be going to their Aunt Muriel’s since she had a bigger house. Luna half-wished she could go with them, to see Ginny again, but didn’t mind staying at Shell Cottage. She liked the fresh air and going outside, which, when she was able to actually read the messages she got on the necklace and the coin, she found Ginny couldn’t go outside.

Just before Mr. Olivander was going to leave, she and he decided to talk one last time and he promised to make her a new wand, since her old one had been taken from her all those months ago.

“Thank you so much, Mr. Olivander.” She gently hugged him, feeling his own frail hand pat her head.

“You are welcome, dear. Anything for a fellow companion in that hell.” He said.

They heard Fleur call for her, and she left the man in his room again, going to see the woman.

It was nearing supper when she and Dean were asked to get driftwood for the fire. The two chatted a bit as they walked, Luna doing most of the talking. They had somehow gotten on the topic of Crumple-Horned Snorkack as they entered the house again when Hermione called to her.

“Luna, we told you, that wasn’t the same horn. It was an Erumpet, not a Crumple-Horned Snorkack.”

“Oh, no, it was definitely a Snorkack’s horn. Daddy told me.” Luna explained as she and Dean placed the wood by the fireplace. “They mend themselves, I’m sure it’s rebuilt by now.”

Before Hermione could respond any more, they heard the stairs creaking and Luna looked up to see Bill helping Mr. Olivander down the stairs. They said their farewells and the two left. They were still eating supper when Bill returned.

“Everything’s fine.” He told everyone. “He’s all settled, Fred and George are driving Muriel up the wall, and Ginny gives all her love. Muriel was also happy to see her tiara again, thought we were going to steal it.”

Fleur rolled her eyes slightly. “She eez charmante.” She then floated the dishes together and left to the kitchen to clean them.

Luna thought about her home, and the tiara her dad was trying to recreate. She commented on it when a sudden loud bang came from outside. There was silence until Bill shouted.

“Who’s there?”

“It is I, Remus Lupin!” The voice shouted back.

After a few moments of the voice stating who he was, Bill lowered his wand and opened the door.

The first thing out of her old professor’s mouth was “It’s a boy! We’ve named him Ted, after Dora’s father!”

Luna looked puzzled until Hermione shrieked.

“Tonks had her baby?”

“Yes, yes she had the baby!” And with that proclamation, Shell Cottage was loud with cheering and joy. It had been as if they weren’t in the middle of a large war.

_Or maybe,_ Luna thought as she smiled at the merriment, _it’s because of the war that everyone is so happy._

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: While reading over Deathly Hallows, I just find it weird that Luna keeps calling her Dad Daddy, especially when talking about him to others. Maybe its just me, tho... *shrugs*  
> Next chapter the timelines are gunna be caught up.  
> Who knew so much could happen in less than a week?  
> See ya later~  
> EDIT: Quotes can be found in Chapter 24, The Wandmaker, and Chapter 25, Shell Cottage.


	21. Speaking again

It had been another week before Luna practically begged Fleur to let her use her wand for a bit. She had been keeping up with the messages, and was worried for her friends. Especially Neville, who still didn’t know about her being safe.

She had carefully found a small quiet place and sat down, taking out the coin from her shoe, and carefully wrote her message.

The response she received as soon as she was done made her heart warm. She was finally able to speak to her friends after months, and decided to tell them as much as she could with the limited room on the coin.

This soon became a routine thing, Luna borrowing Fleur’s wand and writing to talk to Ginny and Neville, and occasionally talking to the entire DA after the flooding of messages stopped.

It was on the last day of April when they received a box for Luna, and she found it was the wand Mr. Olivander had promised her. She was very happy to have a wand of her own again and she had told Neville and Ginny when she did.

_How is everyone now? Has anyone left the Room yet?~L_

_Yes, but in small groups, its still too dangerous. We have made a new tunnel to Hogsmeade, and met with Aberforth. Caught a lucky break with him.~N_

_How so?~G_

_He’s been giving us food and drink so we don’t have to leave the Room at all. The others are scared, but so far we’ve been doing well. Carrows haven’t found us yet.~N_

Luna smiled, relieved to know Neville was still okay. She had been so worried when she had read the message that he was hiding.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: I am very sorry this is short as fuck...  
> But hey, Luna's side is caught up, now I just need Neville's side to reach May 1st and I'll be golden like Freddy(blame Markiplier for me saying that).  
> Hopefully by next week, I'll be able to post a chapter a week. School is nearly finished, and once it's May, I do plan on posting my final project up on here(well, my final project was a short story and I wrote about 30 pages, and I'm so proud of it). So look forward to that if you like my writing!  
> See ya later~


	22. A breather

The next day was busy for Neville. He had been getting messages from other members not feeling safe and asking how to find the Room. He had been confused when many of the students were asking where the Room was, but got his answer from Seamus.

_Mate, the hallway to the Room is completely gone.~Seamus_

_What? You have to be kidding, it was there when I asked for it.~Neville_

_Nope. Nothing is there anymore, mate.~Seamus_

Neville had to ask the Room to let the members of the DA find entrance ways and soon a small cupboard appeared in the corner where the door to the Room normally was. He had walked through it and found himself on the seventh floor close to the Ravenclaw Common Room. He quickly told the others and was flooded by about five to ten members hurrying through the invisible wall to the room, which he had asked to be made a bit bigger.

The first members to join Neville were most of the Gryffindor guys, including Seamus and little Nigel.

It was when they had arrived that Neville noticed a problem. The size of the Room was okay, but they had no way to get food, after many of the members trying and failing to ask for something to eat.

It was only when Neville asked for some way to get food without being caught by the Carrows or the Death Eaters around that a painting appeared on one wall.

It was a very simple portrait of a young girl, no older than fourteen, with blonde hair and brown eyes. She was smiling sweetly and seemed to walk forward in her frame, and suddenly the painting swung open like the Fat Lady’s and the guys were met with a tunnel. Neville and Seamus went to investigate and found Aberforth, a grumpy man who owned the Hogs Head.

“What the hell?!” He cried as the painting of his sister swung open and two students came crawling out. “Who the hell are you? And how did?”

“Sorry!” Neville ducked his head in apology, looking around. “It’s just… We asked for some place to get food, and this tunnel appeared.”

“Why don’t you idiots just go to the Great Hall? They do feed you kids at that school, don’t they?” Aberforth grumbled.

It took about half an hour for Neville and Seamus to convince Aberforth to help them with food, and they were soon laden with sandwiches for the rest of the members in the Room.

The day didn’t end there. It was close to curfew when a couple of the girls were asking for entrance to the Room, and it was expanded to a small house for the twenty students hiding.

For the first time since Ginny was at Hogwarts, there was laughter and noise. Neville smiled as he saw Lavender joked with the Patil twins and Hannah. He laughed along with the guys as Seamus retold a time he made the feather combust in first year, and Neville felt like it was alright to have a bit of fun.

The next day it was told throughout the DA that the Room of Requirement was the best place to rest and not fear being caught by the Carrows. The others would leave a few at a time to go to class, leaving Neville alone to his thoughts, knowing it would be suicide to try to go to class. He spent the day chatting with Luna and Ginny, coming up with possible plans for future weeks and asking the girls how they were doing, being as cooped up as he was.

Luna told them about life in Shell Cottage, about Bill, Fleur and Dean. She didn’t talk much about Harry or the others, saying they were always off on their own, talking and planning something in private.

Ginny talked about her family driving her crazy, and wishing she could visit Luna and her brothers. Neville sympathized with her, wishing he could see Luna again as well.

* * *

 

A couple days past uneventful, and the Room was hiding every single member of the DA, from the dozen first years to the couple dozen seventh years. Neville couldn’t even count how many were in the room, but guessed around a hundred kids in the large temporary flat. Neville was still surprised the Room could fit so many comfortably, but took it as a blessing.

The other kids would tell Neville about what was going on outside the walls, and none of it was good. The Carrows were scouring the entire castle for him, though none knew if it was to kill him to take him away. Neville shuddered to think what they would do to him if he stepped outside now.

It wasn’t until later that afternoon that things really got interesting.

_Turn on Potterwatch. Now._ Neville didn’t know who had sent it, but did as the coin said, and the room went silent.

“Urgent news. I repeat, this is urgent news to anyone who supports Potter.” Lee’s voice sounded strained, as if he was trying not to put his emotions in his tone, but failing. “We have just gotten news about Harry Potter’s whereabouts. Rapier with more.”

“Hey everyone. This is great news, but bewildering at the same time as even we from Potterwatch do not know why he would do this.” Fred’s voice spoke from the radio. “We have gotten word that Harry and his two friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, have just done the impossible: They have just broken into Gringotts and got out alive.”

“What?!” The entire room shouted, before Neville and the Hufflepuffs shushed everyone to listen for more.

“Even the radios controlled by the government are giving out this information, but where we differ is the fact Harry and his friends were not breaking into Gringotts to steal money, as no vault lost any money. They did, however, appear to have escaped with the help of a dragon, and were last seen heading West.” Fred said, and both sides of the radio were silent.

“Please tell me you’re joking, Rapier.” Lee asked.

“Sorry, pal, ‘fraid not. Got eyewitness accounts from actually helpful people and not Ministry lackeys.” Fred chuckled. “It’s interesting to hear about Potter’s antics again, huh? So, viewers, what do you think of Harry and his friends succeeding in the impossible? We will keep you posted as more information becomes available to us. Stay strong and stay safe, everyone.”

The dial turned and all was quiet in the Room as the members took the time to try to understand what they just heard.

_Harry broke into Gringotts? And lived to tell the tale?_ Neville thought. _That’s incredible. Wonder if it’s true._

Chapter done!

%MCEPASTEBIN%

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Ugh, I feel so annoyed! I'm getting timelines messed up with the canon and this story. But, meh, I'm keeping this. If I tried to change it more, I wouldn't be able to get anything done.  
> So, anyway, now it's May first in the story, and the next couple chapters are gunna be crazy(hopefully).  
> I'm not contradicting anything in the story right? Looking over, I'm hoping I'm not...  
> See ya next week~


	23. They're back pt 1

“Harry’s mad! He’s insane! Why would he do such a thing? How could he have escaped?”

The shouts and yells intermingled until Neville couldn’t tell who was speaking.

They had been talking about the break into Gringotts for hours, and Neville was sure it was well past midnight. The younger students were already in bed, surprisingly sound asleep as the fifth years and higher tried to make sense of the radio broadcast.

It was maybe around that time that Seamus called Neville over, saying he sees the portrait moving. Neville went over and saw Ariana motioning to him with a simple smile.

“What do you need? Or, uh Aberforth?” Neville asked the girl in the portrait.

The girl never spoke, but motioned again and swung the frame open anyway. Neville looked over at his friend who shrugged before shooing him into the portrait.

He walked through the tunnel quickly, wondering what was so important that Aberforth was asking to see him.

He got his answer as he looked through the portrait, which was transparent while walking in the tunnel, and saw three figures he thought he would never see.

He hurriedly opened the portrait to see his old friends.

“I knew you’d come back. I knew it, Harry!” He yelled, hugging the three hard.

Harry and the others were at a loss for words, looking over Neville in a variety of expressions conflicting their faces.

“Neville, what’s happened to you?” Harry finally found his voice to ask.

“What? This?” He looked down at himself and shrugged. It wasn’t that bad. He had been surviving with worse, and the other students were more worse for wear. “This is nothing. Seamus has it worse. Shall we get going then?” He could only imagine Aberforth called him now to bring the three back to Hogwarts, and so needed to tell the others something big was happening and to return to school as soon as possible.

“Oh, Ab, there might be a couple more people on the way.” He told him, who gave him a bewildered look.

“What d’you mean, a couple more, Longbottom? There’s a curfew!”

“They’ll be Apparating into the shop directly, okay? Just, send them down the passage when they get here, will you? Thanks.” Neville turned to help Hermione up into the tunnel and then Ron, before getting in himself.

He saw Harry turn to Aberforth just before he got into the tunnel before going up ahead to lead the way, waiting for Harry. He clambered in a few moments later and Neville began walking back the way he came, and the three questioned Neville about life at school. He explained as best he could, while trying to forget the bigger, more painful memories over the last year, while also showing them various not-yet-healed wounds from the ‘professors’.

They had gotten onto the topic of Neville disappearing from the school more or less when they finally arrived to the other end of the tunnel, where Neville swung the other portrait open.

He quickly exited and called for the others’ attention.

“Look who it is!” He shouted as Harry emerged from the portrait behind him.

The room descended to chaos.

“HARRY!”

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Sorry for short chapter. Hopefully soon the chapters will be longer. Well, actually they'll kinda have to be long, it'll be the Battle of Hogwarts!  
> See ya later~  
> EDIT: Quotes can be found in Chapter 28, The Missing Mirror, and Chapter 29, The Lost Diadem.


	24. They're back pt 2

It was a little chaotic when Harry and the others came through the tunnel, but Neville was able to calm them down enough to talk. He saw that the three kept looking around the room in wonder, and told them where they were when they asked. They were very surprised by how Neville had been able to keep the Room secret for so long.

“It’s really straightforward, to be honest.” He waved the compliments away before they started.

“Tell us what you’ve been up to, though!” Ernie called from the depths of the crowd. “You didn’t break into Gringotts, right?”

“They did! And the dragon’s true, too!” Neville answered.

He laughed when the room broke into applause and Ron took a bow. As he bowed, Neville quickly took out his coin and sent a message to the girls, knowing they’d want to know. He put it away after, but felt the coin heat up again, but he could not look at it yet.

Seamus asked a question when Harry flinched, his body curling inwards as his hand smacked against his scar. Ron grabbed him, looking anxious as Harry looked back up. Neville thought he looked shaky.

“You alright, Harry? Need to rest? You must be-” Neville started.

Harry interrupted. “No.” He glanced at Hermione and Ron and gave them a look Neville couldn’t interpret. “We need to get going.”

“What are we gunna do, then?” Seamus called, stepping forward to stand next to Neville. “What’s the plan, mate?”

Harry kept blinking like something was hurting him. “Plan? Uh, well, there’s something we – I mean us” He pointed to himself, Ron and Hermione “need to do, and then we have to get out of here.”

Neville frowned, confused. “What’d ya mean, ‘get out of here’?”

Harry kept rubbing his scar, as if it were irritating him. “There’s something we need to do…”

“Well, what is it?” Neville prodded.

“I-we-I can’t tell you.”

Neville’s frown lengthened, his brows contracted. “Can’t tell us? But doesn’t it have something to do with You-Know-Who? To fight against him?”

“Yeah, bu-”

“Then we’ll help you.” Neville stated as if it were the simplest idea ever.

Harry hesitated, looking around the room again, before shaking his head, making excuses while keeping a hand over his scar.

“We’re his Army.” Neville put his foot down as he reminded Harry. “Dumbledore’s Army, remember? We were all in it together, we’ve been keeping it going while you three have been off on your own-”

“Hasn’t been a picnic, mate.” Ron interrupted.

Neville shook his head. “I never said it was. But why don’t you trust us? Everyone in this Room has been fighting” he gestured to the students all around them with their scars and bruises that Neville barely noticed as new anymore “and they’ve been driven in here because the Carrows were hunting them down. We’ve proven ourselves to being loyal to Dumbledore. To you.”

Harry shook his head again. “Look-” He started when the portrait swung open again and two people came walking through.

Neville’s face brightened as he saw Luna walk through into the Room. She looked much better than the last time he had seen her, and she had a bright smile on as she saw Neville.

Dean was right behind her, and Neville nearly jumped when Seamus yelled and tackled his friend to the ground as he hugged him hard.

“Hi everyone!” Luna called, looking around the large Room at the group. “Oh, it’s great to be back.”

Harry looked distracted at the newcomers as Luna stood next to Neville, who took her hand secretly, and as Dean and Seamus sat up, Seamus leaning against him.

“We’re going to fight the Carrows and Snape out of Hogwarts, right?” Luna asked, looking at the three.

“Listen.” Harry insisted. “I’m sorry but that’s not why we’re back. There’s something we need to do-”

“So, what? You just are going to leave us in this mess?” Michael piped up, crossing his arms.

“No!” Ron’s voice raised in annoyance. “We just-”

“Then let us help!” Neville angrily said. “We want to be a part of it!”

The portrait opened for the third time and Neville smiled through his annoyance at the sight of the Weasleys and Lee Jordan climbing through. Ginny waved and smiled at the group while the twins followed with Lee between them.

“Aberforth’s getting cranky. His bar’s turned into a train’s station.” Fred informed them as the group made room for them.

To everyone’s surprise, after the twins came an old member of the DA, Cho Chang. She held up the old Coin with a grin.

“I got the message.” She stated, sitting beside some of the other Ravenclaws.

Neville looked surprised and checked his own Coin, reading the last message.

_Anyone who wants to help Harry should come to the Hog’s Head and see Aberforth. This is going to be big.~Ginny_

He looked back up when Harry rounded on him. “You have to stop this! What did you call them all back for?”

“We’re fighting, aren’t we?” Dean stood up, pulling Seamus with him but never letting go of his hand as he used his other hand to dig for his own Coin. “It said we were going to fight!” His tone dropped a bit. “I’ll have to get a wand though…”

“You don’t have a _wand?_ ” Seamus twisted his head to look at Dean.

Harry turned the Ron and Hermione and talked to them. Neville looked back at Dean and Seamus, who looked like they were now joined at the hip, their hands interlocked like Neville’s was with Luna.

He looked down at Luna quickly and whispered to her.

“I’m so glad to see you, you have no idea.” Neville kissed her close to the ear and saw her smile.

“I have too. While it was nice to be away from those teachers, it wasn’t as fun because all my friends and you weren’t safe with me.” She whispered back, smiling at him.

They looked back when Harry turned back to the others and said “Okay.”

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Happy May 2nd! Great time to post this chapter!  
> So, because quite a lot of you like DeanxSeamus, I had to write a one shot that would do them justice. It's now connected to this story, check it out if ya want. Kinda short, but its better than how this chapter had them. Also a bit of backstory for that ship while keeping to as canon as I can be.  
> Also, I don't know if I wrote the message, but in case I didn't, its here.  
> School's over in a week, so when that happens, I'll be spending more time on my stories and try to finish them soon.  
> Until next time, see ya~  
> EDIT: Quotes can be found in Chapter 29, The Lost Diadem


	25. Arrivals and the Tower

Neville felt worry worm through his head as he saw Harry and Luna leave the Room to go to the Ravenclaw tower after Harry told them he was searching for something.

The room was loud with talking as more people started arriving from the Hog’s Head. He smiled as he saw more and more old members of the DA stumble through, and sighed with relief after seeing his old friends who had been hunted during the school year.

“Where’s Harry?” Colin Creevey asked as he walked through to the Room, before being enveloped in hugs from his friends, Ginny and Neville included.

“He went off to find something with Luna. Hopefully he’ll be back soon.” Neville replied, helping the teen to the side as Oliver Wood walked through.

Just as it was getting crowded, Neville asked for the Room to expand more, and he saw Ron and Hermione walk towards the cabinet that led to the school halls. Ginny saw as well and called for them to wait, and hurried over to them. Neville couldn’t hear much but saw Ginny nod and the two left the Room.

Neville looked around at the large room packed with people. The younger students were looking in awe at the older people as even members of the Order of the Phoenix started coming through the tunnel. He saw Fred and George make small fireworks from their wands and joke with Lee and the others around them. He saw Dean and Seamus off in a corner, heads together. It looked like they were just talking until Neville saw their face pressed together and quickly looked away.

POV change

Luna felt like something was wrong when she returned to her House’s tower, and finding it was empty. There was always a couple students, normally older students, sitting at one of the tables either working on homework or a personal project with a house-elf occasionally popping in to give small snacks and giant cups of coffee. It was eerie to see the room void of any other student, but thought better than to say it aloud.

She started to regret it when Harry slipped out of the Invisibility Cloak to read the words on Ravenclaw’s Diadem and saw movement from the left of her, by the bookshelves.

Luna took several steps backward softly, squinting at the shape until they spoke.

“Which makes you pretty skint, witless.” It was Alecto cackled and touched her Dark Mark.

Luna took action immediately, as she quickly saw Harry clutch his forehead in pain. She raised her wand and whispered, “Stupify.”

Alecto caught the spell full on the chest, and she was thrown backward, hitting the bookshelves before slumping forward. Luna blinked in surprise over the noise.

“I’ve never Stunned anyone before outside practice.” She wondered aloud, looking at Harry, still under the Cloak. “It was much louder than I thought it would be.”

She heard noise from above her and knew she had woken up her housemates. Harry asked where she was and she lifted the Cloak high enough for him to see her feet before he quickly walked over to her and slipped under the Cloak as well.

Just as the cloak fell again, covering them, Luna and Harry saw a stream of Ravenclaws coming out to investigate the noise, all gasping at the slumped figure of Alecto Carrow. She watched as they crowded around the witch, muttering to each other until one of the first-years – Luna thought for a moment to remember before realizing it was Sean Callihan – had the courage to poke Alecto with his foot.

She saw his face light up as he exclaimed, “I think she might be dead!”

Luna smiled. “Oh look, they’re pleased.” She couldn’t blame them. The Carrows were horrible, and she knew the others had suffered them longer than she had.

Her smile froze when she heard a knock on the Ravenclaw door, and saw the others freeze as well, the blood draining from most of the faces. When they all heard the voice on the other side of the door, even Luna went pale a small bit.

"Alecto? Alecto! Are you there? Have you got him? Open the door!"

Amycus was trying to get into the Ravenclaw tower.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Almost forgot that I had a chapter ready for the week.  
> It is kinda hard to make sure that I am using the right quotes, but I also have to make sure I'm not writing the exact same thing from the books, sooo... Yea.  
> I've also posted my final project. Ya'll can check it out if ya want. I named it Ailim (pronounced A-lim) As well, I've written another short one shot for this series, just check the series name its attached to.  
> See ya real soon, cuz summer is in 2 days and I plan on finishing this series soon. ^u^  
> EDIT: Quotes can be found in Chapter 29, The Lost Diadem, and Chapter 30, The Sacking of Severus Snape.


	26. Head of Gryffindor House

Luna stilled and hardly took a breath as Amycus started pounding on the door to the Ravenclaw Common Room, watching how her housemates reacted to hearing their tormentor trying to force his way in. Most of the younger students fled to their dorms, while a couple stayed more out of fear than anything else.

When she heard the voice of Professor McGonagall, she saw everyone straighten their backs. Most of the Ravenclaws looked up to the Head of Gryffindor because she was as quick witted as the most famous Ravenclaws in history, and was a saving grace to many of the students, never giving the students over to the Carrows for detention. Luna couldn’t count how many times she and Ginny and her fellow classmates have been saved by Professor McGonagall from the Carrows’ wraths.

Luna looked over at Harry as his Head of House spoke just on the other side of the door, and saw his eyes flash, but she couldn’t tell what he was thinking for once.

Luna looked back to the door when she heard it swing, and saw the rest of her house mates fled up the stairs, surprisingly quiet for so many students. She and Harry stood still as Amycus and McGonagall entered the Common Room.

“What’ve they done, the little bastards?” He cried as he hurried to his sister. “I’ll Cruciate the lot of them ‘til they tell me.”

Luna narrowed her eyes but kept still. It would not be wise to try anything when the man was keyed up.

Professor McGonagall tried to calm Amycus, but Luna could tell he wouldn’t listen. He kept rubbing his arm, where Luna suspected the Dark Mark was branded.

“We can push it off on the kids.” He said and Luna’s eyes narrowed more in anger. She almost took a step forward but caught herself. She was more scared of Amycus than anything else. He was the Carrow that frequented her nightmares and the reason Neville always ended up in the Hospital Wing.

“We’ll say Alecto was ambushed by those brats and they forced her to press her Mark.” Amycus continued to plan and with every word Luna wanted to shut him up. “He can punish them. Couple kids more or less, what’s the difference?”

All Luna’s anger drained into fear. She stiffened and watched Harry and McGonagall, wishing they would do something.

McGonagall had turned pale as well, and tried to divert the insane plan away from what Amycus wanted.

Luna didn’t listen to the words said, just watched how the adults reacted to one another until Amycus spat in McGonagall’s face. She started when she saw Harry pull the Cloak off him and raise his wand, which Luna hadn’t noticed he still held tightly in his hand.

“You shouldn’t have done that.” He spoke deathly calmly, and before Amycus could see Harry clearly, he shouted, “Crucio!”

Luna remembered how many of her Gryffindor friends had talked about attacking the Dark Arts teacher with his own spells, but seeing Harry performing the spell himself frightened her. It wasn’t right, to use such a horrible spell, even against someone who wouldn’t think twice about using those spells.

She saw Harry and McGonagall talk before taking the Cloak off of her, and stood again by Harry’s side as he spoke to his Head.

She didn’t pay full attention until she felt Harry clutch her shoulder and stagger, causing both her and Professor McGonagall to look at him worriedly.

“Time’s running out, Voldemort’s getting nearer.” He said.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: It's summer! So I should be able to finish this soon. There still is the actual battle, so that should be fun, and then... Hmmm, deciding if I should do an epilogue or no... Let me know if you think I should do that. the epilogue would be maybe the same timeskip as the actual book, but this time with Neville and Luna, not with Harry and the others.  
> Anyway, see ya later~  
> EDIT: Quotes can be found in Chapter 30, The Sacking of Severus Snape.


	27. The Preparations for War

Neville began pacing, looking around at the large crowd of people in the Room. He wondered what was going on outside but wasn’t about to leave anytime soon until Harry and Luna returned.

When the two did return, Neville released a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. They both looked fine, but Harry looked surprised at all the new people before they started to talk.

“We’re fighting.” Harry said, and there was a roar as everyone started to flood out the door.

Neville tried to catch up to Luna but saw Dean walking up ahead with her, Seamus right behind the two, almost protectively close to the two. He had to sort of fight with the crowd around him to finally reach the three, as they were going down the stairs to the Great Hall.

“That’s when Snape appeared. Hello Neville.” Luna smiled at him before going back to her retelling of what she and Harry had been up to. “It was a little, um, worrisome how he seemed to know where Harry was even though we were under the cloak. He and Professor McGonagall began fighting, which was really interesting to watch. McGonagall is a really intelligent witch when it comes to spell casting, did you know? She is really a good choice for Gryffindor in her fierceness in the fight.”

They entered the Great Hall, Luna explaining all the way.

“And that’s when she told us to get everyone from the Room to meet in the Great Hall. Although I’m sure she would not be expecting so many people from the Order or the older people to be here to fight as well.”

“Well, we couldn’t let the others not know about it.” Dean said. “Fred and George were sending so many messages around and before we knew it-”

“The room was absolutely packed with old members.” Neville finished, looking around the Great Hall at all the students in their nightclothes, looking around blearily and confused.

McGonagall stood at the front with the other teachers and the Order, and was telling everyone to sit at their house tables, making Luna leave the boys to sit with her housemates for the first time in almost half a year. When the entire school was finally mostly finished trickling in, McGonagall began speaking, explaining what was going on.

“The prefects will lead you all to evacuate the school to keep you all away from harm. It will be overseen by Mr. Filch and Madam Pomfrey to ensure your safety and to ensure you reach the evacuation point.” She said, looking around the quiet Great Hall.

Neville and the others looked surprised when they saw someone stand from the Hufflepuff table and Neville saw it was a fellow DA member, Ernie.

“What if we want to stay and fight?” He demanded.

“If you are of age, you may fight.” McGonagall replied simply.

Neville saw most of the seventh years straighten and watched Professor McGonagall closely.

She opened her mouth to speak more when a voice seemed to echo all around the Hall, cold and deadly. It was so loud, it felt like it was vibrating into Neville’s head, and he clutched the side of his head in pain.

“I know you are preparing to fight.” The voice was so dark Neville shuddered. “But I do not wish to spill any magical blood.”

There was silence as Voldemort paused, letting his words sink in.

“Give me Harry Potter. Give him to me and you will be rewarded.” He spoke with finality. “You have until midnight.”

Silence stretched for several seconds before another student stood her eyes wild as she pointed at Harry.

“He’s right there! Someone grab him!” Pansy cried.

Neville and the rest of his House barely took a second before they were all standing and facing the Slytherins. But soon their view of the Slytherins was obstructed as Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws stood with them, glaring intimidatingly at the Slytherins.

“Thank you, Ms. Parkinson. If you won’t mind leading your house first?” McGonagall stepped forward and the other houses sat back down, and Neville saw several students give the Slytherins dirty looks as they did.

As the Slytherins were leaving, Neville saw something that made many other students mutter out loud. A seventh year he had seen around before, but never knew her name, separated from her house and returned to her house table, her smug head held high.

“Why are you staying? Leave ya death eater wannabe!” These were some of the cries several students, mostly Gryffindors, shouted at her, until they heard a different shout.

“Good for you, Niamh! Yeah, girl!” Two small voices shouted from another house, but Neville couldn’t see them until the Hufflepuff house was being evacuated. They were new members of the DA, Grace and Ella. They had been friends with many of the other Hufflepuffs, but Neville had never thought they would be friends with a Slytherin.

The two stood and walked to the lone Slytherin, and seem to stick to her as soon as they sat down beside her.

Soon all those that were left were the fighters, and they all approached the adults to be divided into groups. Neville found Luna again, and stuck close to her while McGonagall spoke.

“Why is there a Slytherin here? None of them should be trusted.” He muttered to her, expecting her to agree.

“Well, I think she can be.” She frowned at him, as if disappointed he had said that. “She did something commendable, being the only Slytherin willing to fight. Don’t you think?”

“But she’s a Slytherin!” He tried to think if the Slytherin had been any different from others from her house before recalling the first punishment lesson way back in Dark Arts. There had been a couple Slytherins who had been hesitant to attack the first years, Malfoy and Pansy among them, and that girl. He recalled she took no glee and had stuck to Ella and Grace before.

“Not all Slytherins should be considered evil, Neville.” Luna told him simply, turning back to listen to the adults when her name was called.

“Luna, you go with Mr. Fred Weasley with defences. Neville, you are with me.” Kingsley ordered, pointing at students or naming them as he went around.

“But sir, I’d be better with the vantage, wouldn’t I?” He asked, causing Kingsley to pause.

“Hmm, maybe. Stay with Professor Sprout then.”

Soon they were separated, and Neville leant close to Luna, whispering in her ear.

“I promise we will both survive this. I’ll see you when this is all over, yeah?” He said, squeezing her hand slightly.

He smiled when she returned the squeeze and she nodded.

Before they stood apart, Neville kissed her at the corner of her lips quickly. He silently promised he would give her a proper kiss the next time he saw her, though, as he went off to Professor Sprout’s group of fighters, heading to the Astronomy Tower.

Chapter done!

%MCEPASTEBIN%

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Sorry it took so long for another chapter! Writer's block comes at the worst time... hopefully this is still a good chapter with the little bit of writer's block in it... :s  
> Anyway, yea, I'm happy to finally be getting to the actual Battle of Hogwarts and hopefully I will be able to keep as true to the fight as I can get.  
> And yea, if you don't understand who that Slytherin is, read "the slytherin who fought." Instead of complaining about how there was no slytherins fighting for the school, I decided to write one that did. I personally don't think no Slytherin would fight for their school, even with how they are looked down at.  
> I will see ya next chapter, lovelies~  
> EDIT: Quotes can be found in Chapter 30, The Sacking of Severus Snape, and Chapter 31, The Battle of Hogwarts.


	28. Fight with everything you have

Luna walked quickly with the others in her group, heading to one of the passageways they’ve been told to defend. She was with both Fred and George and their groups, containing the sole Slytherin, Seamus, and several other fighters.

She was near the back when Fred decided to test the Slytherin.

“So what’s a rotten Death Eater wannabe doing helping the school?” Luna could hear the smirk from where she was.

She barely blinked before she heard a scuffle and Fred’s head whacked against the wall, and she saw the Slytherin inches from his face, the image of pure fury. Her wand was only a hairs breadth away from Fred and she seemed to hiss something at him. The others around Luna had pulled out their wands as if to blast her but didn’t when Fred started to smirk again.

“I’ll _never_ be a Death Eater.” She seemed to spit the words like venom. Her voice rose as she spoke until she was close to screaming. “I may be a Slytherin, but I care for this school just as much as you do. So kindly fuck off and let me protect this school full of assholes and friends.”

Luna almost smiled at the response, and she could see Fred smile as well. “So there _are_ nice Slytherin after all, huh? Nice to see that.”

The Slytherin grunted and withdrew, and Luna looked between the two groups, her against the rest of the group, with mild disappointment. _After she had just told everyone her reason for staying they still didn’t believe her?_

Fred noticed it too, as he tried to step in between the tension. “Hey, guys. It’s okay. Don’t turn on your allies.”

“Allies? With a _Slytherin?_ Are you insane?” Seamus blurted angrily and Luna frowned. The Slytherin bared her teeth and tried to launch herself at the Gryffindor but Fred held her back. Seamus gave her a look of contempt. “See? Why would she be our _ally?_ ”

Luna was about to come forward to see if she could diffuse the mistrust, but Ginny’s other brother beat her to it. He sent up sparks from his wand and stood beside his twin.

“Everyone calm down. We don’t have time to play ‘good or bad’ okay? If Fred says she’s nice, then go on his word. For once. Now come on.” He said, before turning and continuing to walk down the passageway. “We don’t have much time to prepare, and we have a few passageways to up the defence for.”

POV Change

“He knew we weren’t going to give him Harry, didn’t he?” Professor Sprout was pale as she looked across to the edge of the school, where hundreds were standing at the ready.

Neville couldn’t see as well as the professor, but the mass of pitch black against dark green of the grass was immense.

“Are we going to die, professor?” A shy Hufflepuff asked, her voice shaking as she stood with the others behind Neville and Professor Sprout.

Sprout spun, her eyes softening as she put a hand on her student’s shoulder.

“I do not think so. Hogwarts has housed the bravest and strongest wizards and witches, and I do not believe today will be the day we lose those people. I will not allow my students to die.” Her eyes hardened something no one had ever seen the Hufflepuff Head do. Everyone knew the Herbology teacher to be the kindest teacher, rarely getting angry, so seeing her suddenly look like Professor McGonagall was surprising.

She straightened and turned back to look at the mass outside before giving orders on what to do, where to be, as she began looking around to the other towers.

Soon the fighters up in the towers were casting spells as midnight came. They did their best keeping the Death Eaters at bay, but they were only able to for half an hour before their defences fell.

At the first scream, Professor Sprout took a handful of the fighters from her group, Neville, Hannah and a couple other students, to get some plants that would help, telling the others to help with what they can, and to continue fighting together.

“If you work together, Hogwarts will not fall.” She promised them, leaving with the others.

They ran fast, dodging spells and students and other teachers before finally reaching the greenhouses.

“What plants would work well for us, Professor?” Hannah asked, looking around frantically at all the greenhouses.

“Devil’s Snare, or Venomous Tentacula, or some of those things.” Neville suggested, and the teacher nodded, quickly heading to one of the greenhouses, gesturing for the others to follow when they heard a cackle.

“Needing of plants, do we? That could cause a mess, oh yes, a lovely mess to mess with those messy eaters of death!” It was Peeves, sliding down the farthest greenhouse.

“Would you like to help us, Peeves?” Professor Sprout asked, returning outside with her arms full of Snargaluff pods.

Peeves eyed the pods before swooping down and grabbing them all, cackling as he left.

“This is going to be fun~!”

Neville sighed with relief as the poltergeist left. “At least he wants this school as much as we do.”

The others nodded as they grabbed armfuls of plants with expert handling.

“Find the enemies from behind, and let the plants give them hell!” Sprout shouted as she ran back into the school, chucking a couple of Venomous Tentacula at Death Eaters as she did so.

Neville looked between the other students, all holding different deadly plants, before nodding at them and running after their professor into the school, ready to defend it with everything he had.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: PEEVES. Kinda forgot about this douche. But hey, here he is, willing to fight and all. I feel like I made him sound like Gollum...  
> Anyway, finally feeling like the writer's block is gone, and wow, I'm actually at the battle of hogwarts. I still remember how this was just a silly idea of what happened during the year Harry left. And now it's nearly done. Wow.  
> And the fact so many of you like this, I still. asdfghjk. It makes me happy to no end.  
> I dunno how many more chapters I had left for this, but I still have the rest of the battle, after the battle, and then the epilogue. I'm excited, and kinda sad to know I'm nearly done this story. '~'  
> I will see you guys in the next chapter~


	29. Battle of Hogwarts pt 1

Luna ran quickly, dodging blasts and spells and other fighters.

When her group had seen the first Death Eaters enter the school, everyone bolted, sticking to groups of two or three. Luna had at first run with the Slytherin, but was separated when a Death Eater attacked Luna, causing her to lose sight of the girl.

Panting, Luna stopped somewhere on the first floor, close to the Great Hall.

_I hope the others are doing okay._

POV change

Ginny was sprinting, as soon as Harry and the others entered the Room. Like hell was she going to not fight when everyone she loved was fighting!

Every chance she got, she surprised her enemies with her hexes. She had reached the first floor when she saw dusty blonde hair that seemed familiar, finding it to be Luna.

“Luna!” She called, before ducking at an incoming purple curse, running to her friend.

“Ginny?” Luna asked breathless, like she had been running for hours. “I thought, your mother?”

“Mum doesn’t know.” She replied quickly, casting spells as she spoke. “C’mon, let’s continue fighting for our school.”

She held out her hand, and Luna grabbed it, and the two girls ran outside to fight together.

POV change

Luna had lost track of Ginny again when she heard another familiar yell. She was with Seamus, Ernie and Dean, who had taken a wand, when she heard the yell, and felt the temperature drop suddenly.

Looking around, she saw the dark flowy outlines of dementors floating down, towards a trio farther up ahead. She saw a small Patronus from where she was, a terrier, before it flickered and died, and ran forward without saying anything.

She thought of a happy memory, times she was with her mother, times when she was with her friends, times when she was with Neville. Her hare appeared and sprang up to meet the dementors just before they got to the trio she realized was Harry, Ron and Hermione.

She saw a couple other Patronuses appear beside her hare, and turned quickly to see Ernie and Seamus running after her, wands raised.

She turned back to see the three looking at them with surprise.

“That’s right.” She smiled, and her hare ran at the dementors faster for a bit. “That’s right, Harry. All you need to do is think of something happy.”

The look in Harry’s eyes told her he had almost forgotten what happy was. “Something happy?”

“We’re all still here, we’re still fighting.” She told him. “Come on now.”

She smiled brightly as Harry’s Patronus appeared, scattering the dementors altogether.

Ron turned to her and the others, a little shaky. “Can’t thank you enough, you just-”

Before he could continue, a roar sounded from the Forest and the six looked up, eyes wide at the giant appearing to them.

“Run!” Harry shouted and Luna, Seamus and Ernie took off one way, the others running somewhere else. She hoped they would be okay.

POV change

Neville had been battling fiercely in the Great Hall when they heard a cold voice, and everyone stopped.

“You have fought well.” Voldemort said in what Neville thought was a mocking tone. “I know how to value bravery.”

He continued to speak, about what would happen if they continued to fight.

“I am merciful. I command my forces to retreat, immediately.” As he said that, the Death Eaters around the other fighters Disapparated, one by one, until only the fighters for Hogwarts was left, along with the dead and unconscious.

“You have one hour.”

“This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour.”

Neville stared at a wall. _He didn’t even fight yet?_

Within minutes, the survivors began to bring the dead and injured into the Great Hall, and Neville had never thought he would see so many familiar faces no longer living.

He heard a scream and saw Ginny enter the Great Hall, before watching as she ran past him to her family that had been in before he got there. He only then noticed that one of her brothers wasn’t moving, and moved closer to see who. His eyes widened as he saw it was Fred, George having his head lay in his lap.

Slowly, Neville saw many more bodies. He saw friends, and froze when he saw Padma and Parvati crying over Lavender. He saw Professor Lupin, and beside him was Tonks, her hair unnaturally colourless. He saw the Hufflepuff that had been with him on the Tower, the one who had asked Sprout if they were going to die.

When he got to Nigel, looking too young to be so lifeless, Neville felt numb.

He saw many others, before shaking his head and going over to the injured, wanting to help in anyway, just to stop seeing the bodies around them all.

He was helping Madam Pomfrey when he saw Grace and the Slytherin enter the room, the Slytherin holding the small body of her friend, Ella. He saw the two with tear streaked cheeks, and noticed the Slytherin was gripping the body tightly. He frowned.

_War affects everyone._ He thought, before jumping when a hand tapped his shoulder.

“Neville?” He turned to see Luna, and before he could think, he had her in a death grip hug, and felt her tighten around him as well.

“Oh thank god.” He kept whispering to her ear, before holding her at arm’s length to check her over. “You’re okay?”

“Yes. A few cuts and bruises, but I am fine, Neville.” She gave a small smile before leaning up and kissing Neville on the cheek. “Are you fine?”

Neville nodded, but looked around the Hall with pain.

“This is pointless. This entire fight is pointless.” He mumbled, sinking to the floor, Luna sitting beside him.

“If it is, all these good people died for nothing.” Luna grabbed his shoulder and pulled him toward her. “Only if we think this war is pointless does these lives mean nothing, Neville.”

“But they all died for something that shouldn’t have happened!” Neville spoke loudly, even though the room was quiet. Everyone looked at him, but he didn’t care.

“It would have happened anyway. Why were we a part of Dumbledore’s Army if not to fight?” Luna spoke just as loudly, trying to reason with him.

“To fight without any of our friends dying!”

Neville didn’t even notice when Ginny had come forward before a smack rang throughout the Hall.

He held his cheek is surprise. He had thought he was too numb to feel anything, but that hurt.

“Don’t you _dare_ say my brother died for nothing, Neville Longbottom.” Ginny whispered, her eyes swollen and red.

Neville stared at her, not knowing what to say.

“Don’t you dare say any of these people that are dead died for nothing.” Ginny’s voice cracked as she gestured to the room. “Or that those who are still fighting are fighting for nothing.”

Neville looked around at the survivors, all looking the same as how Neville felt, defeated and despairing.

“We’re supposed to be the leaders of Dumbledore’s Army, to lead these kids who didn’t want to live under the thumb of Death Eaters. We all knew the consequences, Neville, even you did. And we still attacked. We still fought, knowing we could be killed for speaking out. Are you really thinking we did all this for fucking nothing?”

_Did we?_ He thought as he turned back to Ginny, before looking at his hands.

Neville didn’t answer and heard Ginny sigh shakily before walking away, back to her family. Luna had her hand on his shoulder still, but not looking at him.

“We should help with the injured, Neville.” She spoke softly, standing up and helping Neville up as well.

Neville nodded and went back to helping the injured.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: I am not the best at writing fighting sequences, but don't worry, the next chapters should have more, because I do know what to do for those.  
> In all honesty, I think the Battle of Hogwarts is the shortest battle I've ever read. I think the first half, before they had an hour reprieve, took around maybe two-three hours tops.  
> Also, Negative Neville. I think everyone would be thinking this, even the strongest people. But don't worry, that slap brought him back.  
> See ya later~  
> EDIT: Quotes can be found in Chapter 32, The Elder Wand, and Chapter 33, The Prince's Tale.


	30. Battle of Hogwarts pt 2

Neville was told to help find more bodies, and had found Colin among the rubble with Oliver, they were near the Great Hall when Oliver took Colin fully in his arms, telling Neville to look for more bodies.

He was bending over one, trying to see if it was someone he knew when someone called for him.

“Neville.”

He spun around to see Harry suddenly appear, holding a cloak.

“Jeez, Harry, you almost gave me a heart attack.”

Neville looked at Harry carefully, and saw he was alone, and he kept shifting his weight like he needed to go somewhere.

“Where are you off to, all alone?” He asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously.

“All part of the plan, Neville. Listen.”

Neville’s eyes widened. “You aren’t gunna hand yourself over, are you?”

“No, no, nothing like that.” Harry shook his head. “You know Voldemort’s snake? It’s a huge snake, he calls it Nagini.”

Neville nodded. “Yeah, heard of it, why?”

“It’s got to be killed. Ron and Hermione know that, but just in case they… In case they’re busy, and you get the chance…”

“Kill the snake?” He asked.

Harry nodded. “Kill the snake.”

Neville nodded in understanding. “All right. You’re sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, Neville. Thanks.”

Neville felt a little worried as he grabbed Harry’s wrist.

“We’re going to keep fighting, Harry. You know that right?” It had taken a while for Neville to start thinking that way again, but after Ginny had slapped him, he knew what he had been thinking was wrong.

“Yeah…” Harry looked uncomfortable but Neville felt like he did understand.

He smiled grimly at Harry before moving off, searching for more bodies to be put into the Great Hall to be mourned properly. When he turned around to see if Harry was still there, he saw nothing, as if Harry had never been there.

* * *

 

The hour was up, and no one had heard Voldemort’s voice yet. When Neville saw Ron and Hermione looking around worriedly, he felt like maybe Harry had done what he said he wouldn’t. His blood drained as he had that thought. Maybe if he had been more convincing, Harry wouldn’t…

Neville shook his head, trying dislodge the thoughts.

“Neville?” Luna asked, looking at him carefully.

“Nothing.”

“Was it wrackspurts again?” Luna asked and did nothing but smile when Neville gave her a confused look.

Neville was about to speak when a cold voice vibrated through the walls into their heads, and Luna flinched away from Neville to grab her head.

“Harry Potter is dead.” Voldemort’s words stopped Neville’s blood cold, and he forgot to breathe for a moment. “He was killed trying to run away. We bring you his body as proof.”

Neville looked at the rest of the survivors, eyes wide. No one could believe it. There was looks of horror and confusion mostly, along with several other expressions that Neville couldn’t understand.

“Come out of the castle. Come and kneel before me.” Neville could hear a smirk in the voice.

Neville didn’t want to move, but he saw several shake their heads as they stood. Luna stood beside him, looking at him with deep worry plain on her face.

“That can’t be right. He has to be…” Luna mumbled, walking as if in a trance, Neville following her.

Slowly the survivors walked, zombie-like, out into the front of the school, to see the large group of Death Eaters with Voldemort standing off to the side, beside a large figure. Neville was surprised to see it was Hagrid, although bloody, still alive and holding a body.

“NO!” Neville’s body froze cold as he heard his Head scream, her voice sounding so anguished it hurt. He saw her run down the steps before halting at the last step, hand over her mouth shakily.

He heard Ginny cry out, her already cracked voice cracking more. He turned to see Hermione and Ron shout.

“No.” Neville said, and slowly the rest of the survivors were yelling their disbelief and anguish.

There were shouts, slowly building until a bright flash and a bang appeared.

“Silence!” Voldemort commanded, and Neville felt a powerful silencing charm snatch his voice away from him as Voldemort spoke.

“You see?” He gestured to the body in Hagrid’s arms as Hagrid was forced to lay him at his feet. “Harry Potter is dead! Do you understand now? He was nothing, ever, but a boy. A boy who relied on others to sacrifice everything for him.”

“He beat you!” Ron shouted, and just like that, Neville felt his voice return, and he shouted agreements before a second flash and bang happened, as his voice was stolen again.

“He was killed trying to escape, trying to sneak out of the castle grounds.” Voldemort gloated.

Neville had heard enough. He shook his head before running, breaking through the group of survivors and trying to make it to Voldemort, or at least the snake he had draped over his shoulders, remembering what Harry’s last wish was.

He had gotten halfway through no-man’s land before a Death Eater had blasted him. He felt his wand being thrown from his grasp as he fell backward, and heard the Death Eaters laugh at him.

“And who is this?” He heard the cold voice much closer, and turned to see he had been only a yard away from him and his snake.

He heard a familiar laugh, and looked to Voldemort’s side to see Bellatrix smile wickedly at him.

“It is Neville Longbottom.” She told him. “The boy who has been giving the Carrows so much trouble. The son of the Aurors, remember?”

Neville slowly got up, his face set emotionless as he glared at Voldemort and Bellatrix.

“Ah, I remember. But aren’t you a pure blood, boy?”

“So what if I am?” He replied. He never cared about his blood status, even when he had feared he would be a squib.

Voldemort spoke smoothly, like the hiss of a snake. “You show bravery, and you come from noble stock. We need your kind, Neville Longbottom.”

Neville’s eyes narrowed in disgust. “I’ll join you when Hell freezes over.” He shouted. “Dumbledore’s Army!”

Behind him, he heard the cries of the members of the DA, both new and old, the ghost of a smile trying to show through as he faced the entire army Voldemort had.

“Very well.” Neville almost didn’t hear the underlying deadliness Voldemort’s tone gave. “If that is your choice, so be it.”

Neville kept his eyes narrowed, wary. He saw Voldemort wave his wand and heard a smash of breaking glass, and soon saw a rag fly into his hand.

“There will be no more sorting.” Voldemort said, and Neville finally noticed the rag was the Sorting Hat. “Only the emblem of my noble ancestor, Slytherin, will suffice, won’t they, Neville Longbottom?”

Neville opened his mouth to retort when Voldemort pointed his wand at him, and his limbs locked up, his mouth snapping shut. All he could do was watch as the Hat was forced on his head, the brim still too wide, and it slipped past his eyes, covering his vision. He heard movement behind him but it stopped just after a couple of steps.

As he tried to escape the magic that held him in place, before a voice whispered in his ears.

“I don’t think I’ve heard this head in years.” The Sorting Hat said in his head. “You’ve finally proved yourself, have you?”

Neville didn’t know how to respond, and couldn’t even if he tried.

“Well, I can see you are worthy of more. Now, listen closely, boy, we don’t have much time. When you can, reach into me and grab the sword you are now worthy of finding.” The Hat told him, before Neville’s vision was filled with blinding flames and the Hat crying out.

Fighting against the magic even harder, Neville distantly heard screams around him before he was able to move.

He swung his arms over his head, knocking the Hat down, before pulling out a great sword, the Sword of Gryffindor, and in one fell swing, he cut the closest thing to him, which was the head of the great snake.

Chapter done!

%MCEPASTEBIN%

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Holy hell. Finally done this massive beast of trying not to copy from the canon book, but still taking a lot from the book in this cuz I'm trying to keep this as canon as possible.  
> One more chapter of the battle, I think? then there would be post-battle, and then epilogue. Maybe before that, I'd do a small thing showing the girls' side of this part, because I feel like showing different sides of this one scene, and it's pretty fun. Tell me if you would read it as a chapter for this, or a small one-shot?  
> In other news, chapters might take a tiny bit longer to post. I recently got a new job, and I'm going to have to work around the job and writing for my stories. Shouldn't take too long to work around it, but thought I'd at least let ya know.  
> I'll see ya whenever~  
> EDIT: Quotes can be found in Chapter 34, The Forest Again and Chapter 36, The Flaw in the Plan.


	31. Battle of Hogwarts pt 3

Luna had her hand over her mouth to stop the scream from coming out as she saw Neville, frozen in place, the Sorting Hat on his head and both on fire.

She jumped when she heard shouts from many different places at once, and her heart stopped for a moment when she saw Neville move, swinging the Hat off his head and suddenly holding a sword.

“Neville!” She cried, but the sound was soft compared to all the noise that suddenly surrounded her.

She tried to run to him, to protect him any way she could since his wand had been flung who knew where, but at the sight of so many giants, everyone scattered into the school, and she lost all her friends in the chaos.

She was running through the Great Hall, looking for any of her friends when she just missed the green curse to her left.

“No!” A voice cried as Luna turned, wand ready, to the caster, her face paling at the sight of Bellatrix, her glare terrifying.

Ginny appeared beside her, throwing spells at Bellatrix quickly, bringing Luna out of her fear, and she began casting alongside.

“Look out!” Another voice shouted and Luna quickly turned to see Hermione push her out of the way, narrowly missing the red flash of light.

The three girls began fighting together rather well, able to time their attacks well, along with protecting one another from Bellatrix’s spells, but were being pushed back.

It wasn’t until Bellatrix tried to kill Ginny that Luna heard a shout she had never heard come from Ginny’s mother before.

“Not my daughter you bitch!”

Luna and the other two were pushed to the side by Mrs. Weasley as she threw spells at Bellatrix faster than any could keep track of.

Luna wanted to help her friend’s mother, but Mrs. Weasley was adamant about battling the Death Eater on her own.

“No! Get back, she’s _mine!”_ She shouted at the few students that tried to help, barely looking at them as her eyes were focused on the Death Eater.

Luna couldn’t stop watching the battle, and soon there was a crowd surrounding two fights, Mrs. Weasley’s and Voldemort’s against three of Luna’s professors.

“What will happen to your children when I kill you?” Bellatrix sneered as she cast. “When Mummy’s gone like Freddie?”

Luna felt Ginny tense up, and almost saw an aura come off Mrs. Weasley in rage as she fought.

“You will _never_ touch my children _again!”_ She screamed, casting spell after spell with each word until.

Luna gasped, and it suddenly felt very quiet, even with the other battle going on right next to Mrs. Weasley’s. Bellatrix was in the middle of tauntingly laughing when the spell hit her right in her chest, and then she fell over.

Luna and the other survivors cheered before they heard a scream, and when she turned, she saw the teachers fighting Voldemort being flung backwards as he turned to face Mrs. Weasley.

“Protego!” A voice shouted between Voldemort and Mrs. Weasley, but Luna didn’t see anyone there, although she had an idea.

Her thought was correct as Harry removed the Cloak, wand already raised and pointing at Voldemort as he walked to block Mrs. Weasley from Voldemort.

Ginny cried out, and Luna knew to restrain her from trying to get to Harry, before everyone went silent in fear and fascination. The two in the middle of the Great Hall circled one another as they spoke, but Luna couldn’t hear everything they were saying with her being preoccupied with keeping Ginny still.

“Accidents!” The two jumped as Voldemort shouted the word, as if banishing the word from the air. “Accidents and chance!”

“What are they talking about?” She whispered to Ginny, who shrugged, stopping in her attempts to get to Harry for now.

“I dunno. Something important I guess? They were talking about the prophecy?” Ginny whispered back.

“You don’t learn from your mistakes, Riddle, do you?”

“You _dare?”_ Voldemort hissed.

“Yeah, I dare. I know things you don’t, Tom Riddle.” Harry said and Ginny tensed again.

“What?” Luna asked quietly, looking back at the two in the middle of the Great Hall.

“I know that name. Back in First year. The diary I always had on me then. The name was Tom Riddle.” She breathed, so tensed she was shaking slightly.

“What?” Luna couldn’t remember much of her first year, and less about what Ginny was like then either. “What diary?”

“I told everything to a diary that belonged to a guy named Tom Riddle. He was so nice when I would talk to him, but then… I can’t believe it.” Ginny said, shaking her head slightly as the two watched Harry and Voldemort speak.

“Dumbledore is dead!” Voldemort shouted, startling many students that were watching.

Luna couldn’t understand what the two were talking about, but watched anyway, occasionally looking around to find where her other friends were, spotting Seamus and Dean together, Padma and Ernie on the other side, before her eyes landed on Neville, directly opposite of her beside the rest of the Weasley family

It was when she saw Neville did the two in the middle stop circling one another, and looked ready to fight. She noticed the sun starting to rise, and just as it had, the two shouted spells, the spells hitting each other with a bright flash of golden light, blinding many of those watching.

When Luna was able to see again, she cheered seeing Harry still standing, and Voldemort on the ground, lifeless.

Her cheer started to grow louder as the rest of the survivors noticed the outcome, and Luna saw Ron and Hermione running towards Harry, before Ginny grabbing Luna and pulling her along to Harry as well. Neville met them when they reached Harry and Luna smiled and cheered with the rest. They were soon crowded by others cheering and congratulating Harry.

The Battle of Hogwarts was finished, and Voldemort was dead at last, never to return.

Chapter done!

  
%MCEPASTEBIN%

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: I could not think of what to write with Neville's POV, and so used Luna. I meant to use Neville's POV, but... :P  
> This was another really long chapter, because I wanted the Battle of Hogwarts to be long altogether with a mix of direct quotes and not-direct quotes and such.  
> Also, I meant to post this yesterday, but for some reason I couldn't paste the chapter into the box, so I just kinda gave up. Happy it works today!  
> So, now there's only two more chapters left, and I have a one shot I've been wanting to post but it's a spoiler to the story, so I've been waiting for the right time to post it, which should hopefully be before the end of this week.  
> EDIT: Quotes can be found in Chapter 36, The Flaw in the Plan.


	32. After the Battle

Luna sat at a table, close to the end when Harry appeared and slumped down beside her. She looked over him closely, noting the tired look on his face with a thoughtful gaze.

“I’d want some peace, if I were you.” She said to him.

“I’d love some.” He replied tiredly.

Luna smiled. “I can distract them long enough for you to use your Cloak.”

She turned away before pointing out the window, calling to the others to look for something that wasn’t there.

POV change

Neville was unused to all the attention he was getting with the sword beside him. Even after so much fighting, it was as bright and shiny as if it were finished today.

He was surrounded by people giving words of praise, and even asking about what it was like to have killed the snake, or being that close to Voldemort when he could have died, or how he had survived the flaming Hat. He was happy to hear everyone talk to him, and he answered what he could while eating what the house-elves happily made for them.

But he wanted to find Luna and sit next to her. He wanted to feel her close to him, to see her again without the loom of war or attacks over them. He could see her sitting by the far table with several others eating, and saw her smile as she ate.

Even with dust and grime all over her face, Neville thought she looked pretty.

He was finally able to move away, keeping the sword with him, as he walked over to Luna, passing the Slytherin who sat with Grace practically in her lap, and before he walked further to Luna’s table, he approached the two girls.

“Hey.” He said, waiting for the Slytherin to look at him before continuing. “I just wanted to say, uh, thank you for fighting. I know you were the only to really fight for the school from your house, and I guess you proved Slytherin's worth.”

The girl looked at him with a tired smile, almost forced. “Thanks, I guess.”

“Niamh, he’s being serious.” Grace elbowed the girl, Niamh, slightly.

Niamh nodded, but didn’t speak again, returning to eating. Grace gave an apologetic look to Neville, who smiled back and left the two.

He reached Luna, and slid in beside her gratefully; grinning as he saw her face light up and she leant against him.

“Hey.” He said, not knowing what else to say.

“Hey to you too.” She smiled up at him before sighing, relaxing more into him.

They were quiet for several minutes, just enjoying the other’s presence and the beautiful sunrise streaming through the broken windows and walls.

It was maybe ten minutes of silence when they felt someone’s presence behind them and Neville turned to see the familiar, although now even more dusty and ripped, hat of his grandmother before she spoke.

“I cannot speak for your parents, but if I could, they would be so proud of you, Neville.” She spoke bluntly, but Neville noticed a friendly spark in her eyes, almost hidden behind years of wrinkles and cracked half-moon glasses. “ _I_ have never been more proud of you, boy.”

Neville just stared, not sure what to say to his grandmother before she turned her attention to Luna.

“And who is this lass, Neville?” She asked.

“Oh, I’m Luna.” Luna replied with a smile.

“Oh,” His grandmother gave a knowing smile at Luna, and Neville felt his face burn before she spoke more. “So you’re the girl Neville talks about.”

Luna giggled and Neville felt like he wanted to just have the table eat him.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: There's some ending fluff, cuz after all that, I think they need it.  
> I fully 100% believe that Mrs. Longbottom would totally be that parental guardian that embarrasses the kid in front of someone they really like but haven't started a real relationship with. Just to mess with Neville, I think she'd pull out family albums of him as a baby.  
> Anyway, this is the last chapter, but next is the epilogue.  
> Hope you like it~  
> EDIT: Quotes can be found in Chapter 36, The Flaw in the Plan.


	33. Epilogue-19 Years Later

Neville smiled as he watched the students flood the Great Hall, settling into their house tables, chatting and laughing with friends and waving at others that weren’t in their houses.

He turned to chat with some of the other teachers around him while waiting for Grace to bring in the first years for their Sorting. He knew this year was going to be interesting, as now both Harry’s boys and Ron’s daughter were going to be in the school. He hoped Albus would at least be more behaved than his brother, for his colleagues’ sakes. The past two years with James had been interesting to say the least for Neville, as he always had James perfectly fine in his classes, but he was a massive prankster in all his other classes, much like the Twins as Flitwick told him a few times.

He thought about what it would be like when Lorcan and Lysander started school next year. He could think of a bunch of embarrassing things he could do to tease his sons when they came to Hogwarts, but put that out of his mind as Grace soon came walking with the long train of first years, the first time more than seventy students were brought in since the Ministry had found the Muggleborn files. He watched with an easy smile at the wonder the new students gave as they walked to the front, where the Sorting Hat sat on the stool towering over the first years.

They listened to the Sorting Hat’s new song before the Sorting began. He smiled as he noticed a Patil, a stout boy with his mother’s appearance, a Malfoy boy that was placed in Hufflepuff to Neville’s surprise, an Abbott girl that looked just like her mother at that age, although she had curly red hair not blonde, before he heard the name he was looking forward to.

“Potter, Albus.”

Neville saw James from the Gryffindor table lean forward, a bright smile on his face as his brother shakily sat on the stool and the Sorting Hat took a full minute before coming to a decision.

“Gryffindor!”

His brother clapped loudly as Albus walked quickly to sit beside him, and Neville smiled.

More names were called until finally.

“Weasley, Rose.”

“Ravenclaw!”

Neville smiled as he thought about how much the girl must have gotten from her mother.

The meal ended and the Headmistress spoke, before they were finally able to leave. Neville left to check on the plants in the greenhouse quickly before returning to his quarters, lighting a candle to write a letter.

“Dear Luna, Rolf, and kids,

I hope my letter finds you well. Already missing you all, and looking forward to Christmas.

The first dinner of the year went off without a hitch. There were finally some Muggleborn kids; I think the most amount of first years since our sixth year. I was very happy to see so many, and the tables no longer seem so empty.

Albus and Rose were sorted, and I saw a few others we know of. Was it Parvati or Padma that married and had a kid? I can’t remember, but their son was put in Gryffindor. Even Hannah’s girl was sorted, and I saw Draco’s kid.

I love you all, give the boys my love, and I’ll send you another letter maybe next week or later.

Neville”

He sighed as he folded the letter and made it ready to be delivered in the morning, before blowing out the candle to sleep.

He was excited to see what new adventures the school year would bring.

Story done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Notes: Just so ya know, same Grace that was Niamh(the Slytherin)'s friend-turned-girlfriend from the Battle.  
> Hopefully you caught the spoiler for the one shot I will post a little after I post this chapter.  
> I didn't know what house Albus should have been in, I see him in both Slytherin and Gryffindor easily, but I guess he would have asked the Hat to be with his brother or something. Also, HUfflepuff Scorpius, cuz I'd think he'd be raised to be kinder than how his father was raised. Sure his family would be disappointed, but there's nothing they can do about it.  
> I also think that it would take a long time for the Ministry to find the burnt/destroyed/missing Muggleborn files, and it'd only be around 19 years that they'd find all the 11yo muggleborns.(I have no idea what they would do for the older muggleborns, maybe send them letters or something to tell them?)  
> I really hoped you enjoyed Neville Longbottom and the Second Wizarding War. It was so fun to write, even though it started out as a small thought on what happened during the school year, as well as my love for Nuna. Every time I read a comment for this story I would smile, it really helps so much just to hear someone like it to the point they say they want to believe this is what actually happened.  
> Thank you so much for reading.


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